


Little Bit of Magic

by latelyllama



Series: Wiccan+MCU [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen, Protective Avengers, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Wanda Maximoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-16 04:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14804513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/latelyllama/pseuds/latelyllama
Summary: While helping with an incident at a New York playground, Peter ends up in over his head when magic enters the picture. Can he now cope with a de-aged friend and teammate with a whole lot of issues, before those issues make things a lot worse?





	1. Day 1: The Incident

Finally, it was Friday. Peter raced away from school, hoping that he didn’t stand out too much with his excitement. Not that anyone would notice anyway. He ducked into an alleyway, like he usually did, double checked no-one was watching, like he usually did, and slipped into costume. Suit. Suit. Mr Stark had told him that a thousand times, call it a suit, costume made it sound like Halloween. He pressed the symbol and felt the material tighten to his skin, not too tight that it was uncomfortable, but tight enough that it hugged him. The display kicked into life and he was off, webbing and jumping his way around the city. The air rushed around him, both chilling him and filling him with a freedom he never felt anywhere else. He landed on a rooftop and looked down on the city he called home. So began his patrol for the day. It went about as well as it usually did. He saved a cat from a tree, rescued an old lady from a mugger and stopped a child from walking out in front of a car. He was clung to a wall, catching his breath, wondering what else he would be doing.

“Karen, what’s the time?” he asked.

“5:47pm” Karen, his suits AI, replied.

“Yeah, I’ve got time.”

He’d agreed to meet Ned later. Sure, Ned knew about his hero-ing but it wouldn’t do to disappoint his best friend.

“Incoming call” his suits AI, Karen, told him.

A face flashed in the corner of his display. It was Wiccan.

“Put him through” he said.

Karen complied with a click.

“Look up.”

Peter looked up, seeing Wiccan sitting on the edge of the roof above him. He waved down at Peter before hanging up the call. Peter climbed, smiling inside his suit. He joined Wiccan on the roof edge. In hindsight, this was a much more comfortable place to rest.

“You been busy?” Wiccan asked.

“Yeah, you?” Peter replied.

“Of course. Not saving cats from trees busy, but still busy.”

Wait a second.

“You were watching me?” Peter asked.

“I swear it was a coincidence” Wiccan answered, holding his hands up in innocence.

“Sure it was” Peter joked, playfully shoving Wiccan.

They laughed. Silence fell over them as they sat, content to watch the city around them, Peter lost in his thoughts. Ned may have been his best friend in the whole world, but when it came to this part of his life, being a hero, Billy Kaplan was just ahead of him. Ned was his guy in the chair, but try as he might, he didn’t understand what it was like to be out there. He hadn’t fought on Titan. Billy had, Billy understood.

“We should probably move, I think that guy down there’s seen us” Billy said, pointing down to the street where a man was squinting up at them.

Peter chuckled. The pair of them must have looked really weird from the street. One was wearing, essentially, a red and blue skin tight onesie with white eyes and a black spider symbol on the chest. The other was wearing a black t-shirt with cream sides and black pants with a raggedy red cape, complete with a hood. They must have looked like a pair of weirdo’s. The pair hopped up and walked away from the edge. Billy tugged on a pair of fingerless gloves and wrapped a black band around his forehead. Peter looked at him doing this, amused.

“You’re still getting dressed?” Peter poked fun.

“Yes, I’ve only just managed to get out” Billy reached out, pressing the button on Peter’s chest, his suit relaxing and expanding.

“Hey!”

They reached the other side of the roof.

“So was Dr Strange in a bad mood then?”

“Not really. The good doctor was as grumpy as he usually is. He was just being very stubborn about how I use my magic.”

Peter raised an eyebrow, forgetting he was completely covered in his suit. Billy seemed to pick up on it regardless.

“He feels like I should be using it like the other sorcerer’s.”

“But you can do so many amazing things, why would he not want you to use it?” Peter asked, upset on behalf of his friend.

“I know, I know. I think he just worries too much.”

“I know the feeling” Peter said under his breath.

Like he usually did, Billy heard him.

“Stark?”

Peter nodded. Billy said nothing, knowing more than most about Tony Stark’s overprotectiveness. He didn’t need to say anything. Billy had butted heads with Stark before over this. Peter couldn’t help but be grateful, even if he didn’t entirely appreciate it from either of them. Billy crouched low, looking down at the street below.

“That doesn’t look suspicious at all” he said, pointing down at something.

Peter followed his finger down to the street. A man was glancing about, clearly looking about for any witnesses. When he was satisfied no-one was watching, he took out a tool from his coat pocket and tried jamming it into a car door. Peter and Billy exchanged a look. Peter leapt down, clutching the top of a nearby street light for support. Billy floated down, his entire body enveloped in a dull blue glow. He settled on a slight overhang, sitting watching the man try and break into the vehicle.

“Hello there” Billy called out.

The man jumped in fright, the tool nearly falling to the ground. He looked about frantically; finally spotting Billy sat on the ledge. He wielded the tool like a weapon, a vain attempt to look threatening.

“I don’t think that belongs to you” Billy said calmly, not at all concerned.

The man hadn’t seen Peter. He slowly crept down the street light. What exactly he was waiting for he wasn’t sure.

“Get lost kid” the man growled.

“I think I’ll stay here, at least until you leave” Billy said.

Billy’s calm attitude seemed to be unsettling the man.

“I’m warning you!” the man near shouted.

“Warning me about what? Your car-jacking tool?” Billy asked, poking fun at the man.

The man tried brandishing the tool but found his hand empty. Peter looked around. Had he dropped it? He glanced up at Billy. The other teen had the tool in his hand. Peter didn’t even want to guess when Billy had taken it. He didn’t pay it much attention, the man below was blubbering, full of confusion. A sudden chill swept through his body. Danger. But where? Peter glanced around, trying to find the source while keeping his focus on the man. Screams and shouts echoed down the street, catching the attention of both teens. The man took his opportunity and bolted, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction to the screams.

“I’ve got him, you go!” Billy called, taking off after the man.

Peter leapt from the light and swung towards the commotion.

“Karen, what’s going on?” he yelled to his AI.

“Unclear” the AI responded, not all that helpfully.

Peter swung around the corner, landing on the roof of a small kiosk. Before him was a park, surrounded on three sides by large office buildings. People were both running to and from the park, so it took a few moments for Peter to realise what had happened. A large section of the park had collapsed into the ground. There were people screaming and shouting and several children crying.

“Karen!” Peter insisted, hoping the AI had figured out what he was seeing.

“The building in front of you has an underground parking lot. It seems that the park was built on top of it and a section has collapsed into it.”

“I need to know where people are” he ordered, leaping to the edge of the gaping hole.

Lights flashed in his display, highlighting several people. Some were partially covered by rubble but most, thankfully, seemed unharmed.

“Ethan honey, look at Mommy. Everything’s going to be fine” a distraught woman was calling down into the hole.

She was practically hanging over the edge. Peter followed where she was reaching down and found a young boy, possibly only six years old and covered in dust, crying his eyes out reaching up for his mother. Peter jumped down into the hole. The adults and several of the children fell silent when they saw him. Most people recognised Spiderman, knowing he would help them. He knelt down beside the boy, Ethan.

“Hey, it’s going to be ok. I’m getting you out” he said, trying to sound comforting to the boy.

Ethan didn’t stop crying, but also didn’t resist when Peter picked him up. He quickly looked about, trying to find something to climb on. All he saw was the parking lot shrouded in darkness. He jumped as high as he could, weighed down by the child, but managing to grab the edge of the hole. One of the other adults helped pull him up before the boy’s mother was on him, dragging Ethan from his arms.

“Shh, it’s ok. I’ve got you” she choked out, turning to Peter as the boy clung to her, “thank you.”

Peter had no time to respond before he jumped back into the hole. There were too many people; it would take a long time to get them all out by himself.

“What’s the situation?” Billy asked, landing beside him.

“People trapped in a hole. We need to get them out” Peter answered.

Billy simply nodded. Peter rushed over to someone covered with rubble and set about shifting it, a couple of other adults helping him. Once done, he turned to see Billy floating just above the floor. Billy clapped his hands together as a ring of blue energy appeared around him.

“ **I need a ladder**. **I need a ladder**. **I need a ladder**.”

Billy chanted out what he wanted. Lightning struck from the ring to a point on the ground before him. The dust was drawn to it, swirling in a tiny vortex as a ladder took shape. The spell continued until a shining metal ladder stretched from the ground to the edge of the hole above. Billy dropped to the floor again, and directed the people towards his creation. They seemed sceptical at first, but gave in and began climbing.

“Please help me!” a woman shouted, grabbing at Peter, wrenching his attention back to the problem at hand, “my leg!”

Her leg was twisted.

“Her knee is dislocated” Karen told him.

“Gross” Peter said under his breath.

He carefully picked her up.

“Wiccan!” he called.

Billy looked over. Saying nothing, he raises his hands, cloaking Peter and the woman in a dull blue glow. They rose from the ground, coming back down when they were clear of the hole. Peter lay her down as delicately as he could before returning to Billy.

“Is it me or are there more people than there should be?” Billy asked him, his voice laced with suspicion.

Peter agreed. Surely there hadn’t been this many people in the park when it collapsed. The chills that had brought him here originally were plaguing him again and again. Peter tried seeing through the darkness of the parking lot. There was a flash of sparks from a broken light, briefly illuminating people fleeing from something in the dark. He stood ready. No doubt whatever they were running from was serious. Another flash of sparks and he saw it. He couldn’t quite make out what it was. It was a figure, cloaked in long robes of, he assumed, black material. The cloak seemed to shift and flow like it was floating in water. His senses were screaming at him. The only thought in his head was danger. The figure approached.

“Who are you?” Peter challenged.

The figure stopped. The two stared each other down. The figure cocked his head, or what Peter assumed was his head, like he was trying to get the measure of the teen hero.

“Billy…” Peter started.

The figure twisted out his arms, a blast of yellow energy shooting out towards Peter.

“Get down!” Billy yelled.

Peter only just managed to turn to one side when he felt arms shoving him to the ground. He heard a loud yell as he crashed to the ground. Instinct took over and Peter sprang to his feet, searching for the shadowy figure. There was nothing, the lights of the parking lot coming back on one at a time, revealing nothing but a now empty room.

“What the hell?” Peter said under his breath, waiting to hear Billy’s reaction.

But it didn’t come. Worried, he turned around. Billy was slowly picking himself up off the ground. He was unsteady, shaking, his breaths rapid and heavy.

“Billy!”

Peter rushed to his side, helping him to his feet.

“Karen?” Peter asked, hoping the AI would know what was happening.

“Heart rate’s elevated. Temperature rising.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know. My sensors are somewhat limited in this suit, since you returned the more advanced one.”

“Mr Stark said that was only for emergencies!”

“I believe this counts as an emergency.”

“No kidding!”

What was he going to do? Panic was starting to set in. He couldn’t take him home, May would completely freak out. He couldn’t take him to a hospital, how on Earth would he explain any of this? He couldn’t take him to Strange, if it wasn’t magical then Strange would just kick him out and he’d never let Billy be a hero with him again. That left only one option.

“We need help. We need to go to the Avengers” Peter said, trying to keep his breathing level.

“Shall I alert them?” Karen asked.

Billy took a step from him. He held out his hands, his eyes closed in concentration.

“ **Take us to the Avengers**. **Take us to the Avengers**. **Take us to the Avengers** ” Billy cast.

Bright blue energy sprang forth, spinning in a ring around the pair of them, before enveloping them completely. A surprisingly warm sensation washed over Peter, accompanied by an unnerving lightness. He was blinded for a brief moment before the light faded. Billy lost his balance and fell forward. Peter caught him and eased him down to his hands and knees. He was shaking more than before, weakened by his travel spell. Peter took stock of his surroundings. They were in the living area of the Avengers compound. He’d been hoping there would be somebody, anybody, around when they arrived, but the room was empty.

“Somebody, please help me!” he yelled.

Billy tensed, letting out a cry of pain. Peter wrenched off his mask, completely out of his depth. What was he supposed to do? He heard hurried footsteps and from around the corner Wanda and Vision appeared. They both look confused but on seeing Billy, they hurry forward. They didn’t get far. Tendrils of yellow light started wrapping around Billy, with each coil another grunt of pain.

“Stop please! **No more**! **No more**! **No more**!” Billy yelled.

Coils of blue energy joined the yellow. The two colours danced and crossed one another. The light was so intense Peter had to shield his eyes. And then like it started, it stopped. Peter didn’t drop his hands. What would he see? Was Billy horribly burned? Misshapen? He didn’t sound like he was in pain anymore, which he guessed was good. A quiet whimper made him drop his hands.

“Oh my god” he heard Wanda say.

Where before Billy had been doubled over in pain was stood a child. He was looking about, his bottom lip quivering as he sniffed back tears. Billy’s t-shirt fitted him like a dress. He clung onto the cape, holding it tight. Billy's headband hung around his neck. The boy saw Peter in front of him. He took one look at his face before letting out a cry.

“Jamie!”

The boy leapt forward, wrapping his arms around Peter, burying his face in his chest. Peter looked down at the boy, then back up at Wanda and Vision. They seemed just as confused as he did. He looked back to the boy holding onto him like his life depended on it, putting the pieces together. The boy had been where Billy was. He was wearing what Billy had been wearing. He had the same short, slightly wavy black hair that Billy had. He didn’t need Vision asking the question for him to know what was going on. This child was Billy Kaplan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted Wiccan to be in the MCU, so I have my own little canon where he is in it. I hope to expand on where exactly this version of the character fits into the MCU that we've seen thus far. It is set post infinity war. Since I don't know how that particular story ends, I went with the 'everything was alright in the end, sunshine and rainbows' type conclusion rather than wade into the myriad of more exciting possibilities. It also means I can use the characters as we've seen them up to and including Infinity War, without having to worry about any deaths (whether permanent or not).
> 
> The character may be called Wiccan, though he's practically an original character. But hey, the MCU has already taken so many liberties with other characters, why not this one as well.
> 
> Please let me know what you think. I greatly appreciate any feedback you might have.


	2. Day 1: The Nightmares

Calm down. Calm down. Keep breathing. Stay calm. Hopefully repeating it over and over would make it real for Peter. Was it working? Not in the slightest. The small child clinging to his body, sniffing loudly, brought him crashing back to reality. He looked down. The boy was still there. He’d stopped crying, but with the way he was glancing about, Peter could tell he was scared.

“Is that Mr Kaplan?” Vision asked.

Peter crouched down. The boy tried clinging all the harder when he started moving, but Peter gently pulled him away. Standing him in front of him, Peter tried kneeling at the boy’s level. That was something you did with kids, right?

“Billy?” he asked tentatively.

The boy nodded slowly. Wanda approached the pair, sending Billy back to clutching at Peter. Wanda stopped, also kneeling down to Billy’s level.

“Billy, do you know who we are?” she asked.

Billy said nothing, still looking between Wanda and Vision with uncertainty. He looked to Peter for comfort. Peter didn’t know what to make of it, remembering the name he’d called him. Jamie. Who was Jamie? He racked his brain, trying to think if Billy had ever mentioned a Jamie before, but drew up only blanks.

“I’m Peter, remember” he said, trying to make his voice soothing.

Billy scrunched up his face like he was thinking.

“Pe-ter” he sounded out.

“Yeah, Peter, remember me?”

Billy didn’t respond. Instead, he continued gripping at Peter’s suit.

“Do you remember me?” Wanda asked, doing a much better job at using a soothing voice.

Billy didn’t respond. It reminded him of when they’d bumped into one of May’s friends. Their daughter had hid behind her parents legs, acting all shy when May tried talking to her. She had been about five years old. Is that how old this Billy was? Vision had watched these interactions with a calculating gaze. He seemed to be trying to figure out what to say. If he figured it out, Peter would like to know as well.

“I believe we should take him to the medical facility” Vision said eventually.

“Good idea” Peter said, standing up.

Billy made a noise, tightening his grip. He held on as Peter stood. Peter, shocked, held onto Billy, holding him like he’d seen people hold kids in movies, settling him on his hip.

“Come on Billy, you can walk, can’t you?” Peter said, suddenly doubting everything he knew about small children.

“I don’t think he wants to” Vision said.

“How could you tell?” Peter asked rhetorically.

“Because he doesn’t appear to want to let go” Vision answered sincerely, not picking up on the sarcasm.

Peter shook his head and followed after Wanda. Thankfully, he’d never had to use the medical facility at the Avengers compound, so he didn’t really know where it was. Heat flushed his cheeks. What if anyone saw him? What would they say? Oh god, what would Mr Stark think? A million different possible explanations bounced around his brain, each one as ridiculous as the last. He could say he was his cousin, yeah, his cousin … Will, that was close enough to Billy, right? But why was he only wearing a teenagers t-shirt? Oh god, he was only wearing a t-shirt! Did he need to wear diapers? Had he been potty trained? How on earth was Peter, only a teenager himself, supposed to deal with this? Billy seemed to have calmed down slightly. He looked about as they walked, taking in the sights. Whenever either Wanda or Vision got too close however, he shuffled in closer to Peter. The door to the medical centre hissed open. Thankfully, what with it being Friday evening, it was empty, apart from Dr Cho, who always found reasons to work late. She looked up as they entered, her always friendly smile ready on her face. It vanished when she saw Billy.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“We need your help” Wanda responded, indicating the child in Peter’s arms.

She gave him another look, recognising the t-shirt. She’d met Billy once before, and seen him in his costume (suit!).

“Is that…?” she asked, putting two and two together.

“Yeah, it is” Peter said, not even letting her finish her question.

“Set him down on the table” she told him, picking up her tools.

There was a large white table in the middle of the room. Thankfully, Billy was content sitting on the table, but whined when Peter tried moving away from him.

“It’s ok, I’m still here” he comforted.

Billy was happy to just hold onto his arm. He tightened his grip when Dr Cho approached.

“Hello there. My name’s Helen, what’s yours?” Dr Cho asked, her warm smile back.

Billy looked to Peter for approval before quietly speaking.

“Billy.”

“It’s very nice to meet you Billy.”

She picked up one of her tools. Billy looked at it intently, not taking his eyes from it, as he shuffled ever so slightly closer to Peter. Seeing this, Dr Cho decided against it, instead taking out a cotton swab.

“Could you open your mouth please? As wide as you can so I wipe the inside of your cheek” she asked.

Billy considered this for a moment, reluctant to do it. Dr Cho opened her mouth wide, making a silly noise. Billy smiled, an innocent, sweet smile, giggling very briefly, before opening his own mouth.

“Very good” Dr Cho told him, taking the swab, “good boy.”

She picked up the instrument from before, holding it in front of Billy.

“This is a special scanner. It’ll help us figure out what’s going on.”

She explained things calmly to him, even showing him what she’d be doing, waving the device slowly around her arm in demonstration.

“You’ll need to let go of Peter so I can get all the way around” she told him.

“No” he squeaked out, holding onto Peter tighter.

“It’s ok. It’ll be over really quickly, and Peter will be right there,” she comforted, pointing to the very end of the table, only about half a foot from where Billy was sitting.

“It’s ok buddy” Peter said as well, hoping that hearing it from him would help.

Billy looked down at his feet, before nodding slowly. He reluctantly let go of Peter. As soon as his hand was free, he clutched onto the red material of the cape he still wore. Peter shuffled around to where Dr Cho had told him, as the doctor waved the scanner slowly all around the child. Billy watched it move, clearly nervous about it.

“What happened to him?” Dr Cho asked, not even looking up from her work.

Wanda and Vision perked up. They too wanted to know.

“We were helping people out of a collapsed parking lot, and there was this guy, I think he was a guy, he was all dressed up in robes or something, people were running away from him so we thought he was something bad, and he fired something at me but it hit Billy, and he seemed to be hurting so we came here but then there was this light and more light, and then Billy was like this” he babbled, his confusion and worry taking over the running of his mouth.

Dr Cho merely nodded her understanding. She finished with the scanner, typing in some commands.

“That’s it done. Good boy.”

Billy flashed a brief smile before shuffling over to hold onto Peter’s arm.

“So, what’s wrong with him?” Peter asked, forgetting to be delicate.

Dr Cho gave him a look, making Peter apologise under his breath.

“As far as I can tell, he’s completely fine, physically speaking.”

“But, he’s a child” Wanda said, dumbfounded.

“Yes, but apart from that, he’s fine. If I were to guess, I’d say he’s about five years old.”

“Do you know why?” Peter asked hopefully.

“No idea. It sounds like magic from what you said which is most definitely not my area of expertise.”

“Then our course of action is clear. We must contact somebody knowledgeable in magic” Vision said calmly.

If only he could be an android, then maybe he could be so calm in a situation like this. Peter felt completely at a loss of what to do. The benefit of being a friendly neighbourhood hero was that his problems tended to be simpler. This was way out of his league, and what did he do when he found himself in situations like this, what had he been told countless times not to hesitate to do if he needed help urgently, he called Mr Stark. His phone dialled but the wait before Tony answered was almost unbearable.

“Hey kid” Tony’s voice said when he picked up.

“Hey Mr Stark, you know how you said if I ever needed help, I should call you. Well…”

“Kid, why is FRIDAY telling me there is an unauthorised person at the compound, and that he’s sat with you in the med bay?” Tony asked sharply, cutting him off.

“You see, the thing is…”

“You know what, you can explain in person. I’m just pulling into the compound now. Talk to you soon” Tony signed off, hanging up.

Peter stood there gaping for a few moments. Wanda and Vision stood waiting for him to speak when he felt a tugging on his arm. He looked down to see Billy meeting his gaze.

“Could I please have a drink?” the boy asked quietly.

Of course! Children needed to eat and drink just like grown-ups, more so if his cousins were any reasonable metric.

“Sure, you hungry too?” he asked.

Billy nodded.

“Well let’s go get something.”

He helped Billy down off the table, not wanting to carry him. Billy looked like he wanted to be carried, but said nothing, reaching out and taking Peter’s hand with one of his while still clutching the cape in the other. Peter led him back through to the living area, finding the kitchen empty.

“Where is everyone?” Peter asked.

He’d both hoped and dreaded that everyone would be here.

“Captain Rogers is away on a mission. He and Sergeant Barnes should be returning tomorrow” Vision answered.

Peter picked Billy up and sat him on a stool.

“I’ll go see if there’s anything he can wear” Wanda whispered in his ear before disappearing.

Vision watched her go before slicing some cheese. Billy looked at Peter expectantly.

“So um, Billy. Can you tell me what you remember?” he asked the child.

He didn’t know what else he could do. If Billy could remember things from his older self then everything would be so much easier. If not, well, he’d deal with that somehow. Billy pondered the question, scrunching his face in concentration.

“I don’t know” Billy replied.

Peter was disappointed. Now what? It must have shown because Billy looked upset.

“Is that bad? I’m sorry” he stammered out.

“No, no, no, it’s not bad” Peter reassured him.

Yes, yes, yes, it is bad, he thought.

“Wow.”

Peter jumped around. Tony Stark was stood in the door way, looking at Peter, still in his spider suit, and Billy, five years old and wearing a massively oversized t-shirt with a long red cape.

“Mr Stark, I…” Peter said, struggling to find the words.

“Don’t worry, FRIDAY filled me in” he said, sitting in the stool next to Billy, “hey kiddo.”

His tone was warm and kind, taking the whole situation in his stride, but the sudden arrival had put Billy on edge. He backed away from Tony as much as he could, but he was sat on a high stool. He almost fell, but Peter caught him and propped him back up.

“He seems really nervous around new people” Peter explained when Tony shot him a confused look.

Tony nodded his understanding. He looked over at Vision, seeing him load a toaster oven.

“Looks like we’re having grilled cheese. Do you like grilled cheese?” Tony asked Billy, trying to put the child at ease.

Billy glanced at the toaster.

“I don’t know” he said timidly.

“Well, you’re in luck, because I hear that Vision makes the best grilled cheese in the world” Tony said.

Vision turned, a confused look on his face.

“I have not heard many people compliment my cooking” the android said, hesitating when he saw Tony’s look of ‘stop talking’, “but thank you all the same.”

Thankfully, the conversation was interrupted by Wanda. She had a small bundle of clothes.

“Hopefully these should fit.”

She held them out: a plain blue t-shirt and grey sweatpants, with underwear and black socks. Where exactly she had found those clothes, Peter had no clue. Another question flashed through his head. Could five year olds dress themselves? He helped Billy down from the stool and he and Wanda led him through to the lounge. It turned out that Billy could dress himself, for which Peter was incredibly happy, but he refused to take off the oversized t-shirt. After unsuccessfully trying to convince him, they gave up and returned to the kitchen. Billy was sat again on the stool, now holding onto the headband.

“It’s probably a familiarity thing. It’s something he knows from when he’s older, same with the cape” Tony said.

“Really?” Peter asked.

It made sense. Why hadn’t Peter thought of that?

“I have absolutely no idea. This is all uncharted territory” Tony said.

Peter still thought it made sense. He realised he was still in his spider suit. When he got up to change, Billy also tried leaving.

“No Billy, you need to stay here.”

“But I want to be with you” the child said, clearly trying not to cry.

Peter faltered. He needed to change, Billy needed to eat. Thankfully, Wanda stepped in.

“Billy” she said softly, getting the boys attention, “Peter just needs to go and change into something more comfortable, just like you did. He’ll only be gone a minute and then he’ll come straight back.”

Billy seemed to accept this reasoning.

“Come right back” he told Peter.

Peter mouthed a thank you to Wanda before hurrying off to his own room. It had been set aside for him a while ago, when Tony first offered him a place on the team. He used it from time to time, but it was empty much more often than not. As such, he didn’t keep many clothes here, but he did manage to find something more comfy to wear than his suit. He sat on the edge of his bed, trying to catch his breath from the situation when his phone buzzed loudly. It was Ned, trying to call him. He’d completely forgotten they were supposed to meet.

“Peter, where are you? Are you in trouble?” Ned said frantically when Peter answered.

“I’m fine Ned. Well, sort of. Look, I don’t think I’ll be able to meet tonight.”

“Is this is a Spiderman thing?”

“Yeah, it’s a Spiderman thing. I can’t talk long Ned, it's serious.”

His friend huffed.

“Fine, but I expect to know everything when whatever it is is over.”

The two said their goodbyes and hung up. He thought about calling May but decided against it. She’d only worry.

_Will be late back. Can’t talk now. Will explain later_ , he texted her, hoping she wouldn’t freak out. He returned to the kitchen to find a tense atmosphere.

“Come on Billy, you need to eat. You’re hungry” Wanda was saying softly into Billy’s ear.

Vision hovered by her, concerned but unable to articulate his feelings. Tony was no longer with them. Billy said nothing, simply staring at the plate of grilled cheese, wringing his hands with the headband. She looked up when he entered, Billy did too. He perked up when he saw Peter, the sweet smile from before returning for a brief time. Peter took the stool next to Billy and grabbed another plate of grilled cheese. Only when Peter took a bite of the sandwich did Billy start eating. He was slow and careful, making sure he was leaning over his plate when he took a bite. Peter watched as he too ate his grilled cheese. It wasn’t amazing, certainly not the best like Tony had said, but Billy didn’t seem to be complaining. They ate in silence, Peter trying to catch Wanda’s attention. He wanted to know if she’d tried reading Billy. Maybe she could find something in his mind that the child Billy couldn’t access. Tony returned, stowing his phone in the inside pocket of his jacket.

“Just called someone who might be able to help” he said when Peter cocked his eyebrow at him.

Who did he call? His question was answered almost as soon as he had thought it. Behind them, a trail of sparks materialised in the air, forming a large circle. The sound reminded Peter of a firework being lit, just before it rocketed up into the air. The ring of sparks was, as he knew, a portal. Through it, clad in blue robes with a large bronze medallion in the shape of an eye, Dr Stephen Strange entered. His gaze quickly fell on the child Billy. His expression softened, almost looking concerned. He took a step forward but stopped when Billy almost recoiled away from him. Billy reached out for Peter, clearly scared by this new person and what he’d just seen. Peter grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it reassuringly. This was Dr Strange, Billy’s mentor. Surely he would remember him.

“Oh Billy. What’ve you gotten yourself into now?”

“Stephen Strange, so good of you to come” Tony said in a faux-formal tone.

Strange ignored him, still focussing on Billy. Billy looked ok with this newcomer, but he didn’t seem to like the portal behind him.

“Tony said it was magic that did this to him” Strange said, addressing Peter.

“Yeah, or at least I think it was” Peter replied, trying not to let his nerves get the better of him.

He couldn’t help it, Dr Strange still intimidated him in a way none of the other Avengers did, even the more serious and brooding ones like T’Challa or Bucky.

“It’s definitely magic, I can feel it from here. I’ll take him back to the Sanctum, see what I can do.”

He stepped forward, reaching out his hands to Billy.

“No!” Billy yelled.

He hopped off the stool and grabbed onto Peter’s legs, hugging them tightly. Peter couldn’t really move from his own stool now. Strange faltered slightly but still kept coming.

“Come on Billy, don’t be silly” he said.

“No, I want to stay with Peter. I want to stay with Peter” Billy cried, tears forming in his eyes.

Chills ran through Peter’s body. Danger. Strange backed off too. Whatever that was, he’d felt it as well. He held his hands back, admitting defeat.

“Ok, ok. I’m not going to take you anywhere.”

Peter reached down, pulling Billy up to sit on his lap. He seemed calmer now that Strange had stopped.

“Well, I’m not just going to sit around like an ass. A spell did this to him, so a spell will undo this.”

“Can’t you undo it now?” Peter asked hopefully.

Strange shook his head.

“I’m afraid not. There are many different spells that can have this de-aging effect, from simple time reversals to things a lot more sinister. To reverse it, I need to know which one it was.”

“Well, feel free to look at his test results, and the security footage of what happened” Tony offered.

“Thank you.”

He took one last look at Billy before turning to leave.

“Wait!”

Peter shot up, depositing Billy on his stool as he did so. He couldn’t go too far as Billy had a hold of his hand and he didn’t want to drag him from the chair. Strange stopped, turning back to Peter.

“Do you have any advice, I mean, for handling Billy when he's like this?”

Strange frowned at this question. Any clue as to what Billy was like as a child was all Peter wanted.

“I never knew Billy at this age, none of the sorcerers did. He first broke into the Sanctum when he was 13, and kept breaking back in until the sorcerers figured out how he was doing it. They thought it best to keep him around rather than let a magically gifted teenager be loose on the streets.”

“But did he say anything, like, about his past or childhood?”

“No, but considering he never expressed any worries about people missing him, I’m sure it wasn’t good.”

Peter was disheartened. He’d hoped, of all people, Dr Strange might know something.

“Just,” Strange said, avoiding looking at Peter but being completely sincere, “keep him safe, please.”

Peter nodded.

“I will.”

Strange bid them farewell and left through the portal, which closed behind him. Billy tugged on Peter’s arm, bringing him back to the table. They finished their food when Peter spotted Billy nodding off. He was tired and hadn’t said anything. He glanced at the clock on the wall. 9:12pm. Was that an appropriate time for a child to go to bed? He had no idea, but he could feel himself getting tired so it probably was. He needed to get home. He’d said he’d be back late, but knowing May she wouldn’t be happy until he walked through the front door, no matter what time it was.

“Mr Stark, could I get a ride back into the city?” he asked.

“You’re heading home?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re leaving?” Billy asked.

He really should have expected it, should have known that child Billy wouldn’t want him to leave, but he needed to go home.

“I, well, yeah, I mean, my Aunt’s waiting for me” he stuttered, unable to bear the look on Billy’s face.

Tears started running down his cheeks. He once again hopped down from the stool and hugged Peter’s legs.

“I don’t want you to go!” he cried.

Peter patted him gently on the bag, trying to assuage the guilt rising in his chest.

“You’ll be ok Billy” he soothed, not making any difference to the crying child.

Wanda knelt beside Billy.

“He’ll be back in the morning” she said, shooting Peter a look to tell him that he WILL be back in the morning, “and Vision and I will be here through the night if you need anything.”

Billy wasn’t having it.

“No … want … Peter” he said between sobs.

Peter looked to Vision and Tony for backup. Vision at least had the good grace to look like he wanted to help, Tony just shook his head.

“Look, kid, it’s obvious who he wants to be with. He wants you” Tony said, not unkindly but his words were still very direct.

“But I can’t just stay here, my Aunt….”

“Will understand the situation. Why don't I call her and explain while you deal with the ball of emotions?” Tony offered.

Peter wanted to push further, but he could feel his pant leg getting wetter. He nodded and carefully got down from the stool, kneeling in front of Billy.

“Ok, I’m staying here for tonight.”

Billy slowly stopped sobbing, trying to smile. He wiped his eyes messily. He wrapped his arms around Peter’s neck, hugging him tightly. Peter was taken aback by the almost desperate affection. He hugged back, why wouldn’t he, when Billy pulled back almost as quickly. Peter could see his eyes drooping.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

Peter took his hand and led him to his room. Billy, like Peter, also had a room set aside for him in the compound, though he spent even less time here than Peter did. Still, he found when he entered it was just as warm and inviting as all the other rooms. Billy needed no encouragement to climb into the large bed. He seemed almost amazed at how big it was. Peter tucked him in and then thought. Should he give him a goodnight kiss? That seemed like something you do with young children. No. A child Billy may now be, but he was still a good friend of Peters, and it would just be weird, especially if he remembered when this was over. He settled for a ruffle of the hair as Billy wriggled into a more comfortable position. He was just about at the door when Billy shot up.

“No don’t go.”

Peter was tired, wanting nothing more than to go to bed himself.

“I’m not, I’m just going to my room.”

“Can I come too?” Billy asked.

Peter shook his head.

“No, this is your room. You sleep here.”

Billy looked upset.

“What’s the matter? Do you not like your room?”

Billy shook his head.

“Then what is it?”

Billy opened and closed his mouth, looking like he was trying to speak but struggling to find the words.

“I, I don’t want to be alone” he said quietly.

Peter felt the guilt rising in him again. He knelt beside the bed.

“You’re not alone Billy. There is a whole group of people who would be ready, who are ready and willing to help you. And my room is just a couple of doors down.”

He wasn’t sure if Billy fully understood so he sighed.

“Do you want me to stay until you fall asleep?” he asked.

Billy nodded and lay back down. Peter noticed the red cape, wondering when Billy had grabbed it from the lounge. He pulled it more tightly, tucking it like a blanket around Billy. He pulled up a chair and sat, taking hold of Billy’s outstretched hand. He gently rubbed the back of his hand, remembering that May used to do that to him when he couldn’t sleep. It seemed to work. He could see Billy trying to stay awake, but failing, his eyes reopening slightly less wide each time they closed. Eventually, they stopped reopening and his breathing steadied to the slow and steady rhythm of sleep. Carefully, Peter extracted his hand from Billy’s, switched the light off and left the room. His own bed was calling, along with the feeling that tomorrow would be a very long day.

 

Wanda always found herself waking up in the middle of the night, too many memories swirling about her head, too many people about that, try as she might, she couldn’t but read as she slept. So when she woke up at two in the morning, she wasn’t at all surprised. She checked her room. Vision was floating by the door, sleeping, or as close to sleep as he could get. He’d said he wanted to be alert and ready should Billy need assistance. She’d said he could do that even if he lay down in bed, however it seemed that Vision could be rather stubborn on certain matters. She paid it no mind as she got up and walked past him. A glass of water usually helped her settle back down. The compound was quiet, peaceful. Everyone was asleep, even Peter and Billy. Peter had put Billy down for the night and only came back to kitchen to tell them he too was going to bed. Once he’d gone, Tony had asked her if she’d tried reading Billy.

“ _Go on, you can’t tell me you haven’t tried._ ”

As it happened, she had. She had told him carefully, reading him and his reactions just as much as she’d read Billy. Though the whole incident with the Accords was years in the past, and both had tried mending their relationship, she couldn’t help but be a little suspicious of Tony. Vision would tell her that she was being irrational, that what Tony did to Wanda was near the top of his long list of deep regrets, but it was a feeling she couldn’t quite shake.

“ _I tried, but it’s weird. It’s like all those memories, all those experiences, they're still there, but he just can’t seem to access them properly, like he doesn’t know how to process them._ ”

Her thoughts were still on Billy when she felt a flash of fear. It stopped her in her tracks. What was that? She was almost at the kitchen but she turned, retracing her steps down the corridor. At the end, she saw a door open and someone almost tumbled out of it. By the size of them, it could only be Billy. He was still dressed in his clothes from earlier and he was clutching the cape tightly. He seemed to be crying, breathing rapidly. The fear she felt was from him. He pressed himself against the wall opposite his room, sliding down it to the floor. She hurried towards him and he startled as she approached.

“Billy, what’s wrong?”

He shook his head, clearly very scared.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

He nodded but then quickly shook it again. She smiled warmly, trying to put him at ease.

“It’s ok Billy. You’re safe. They were only dreams.”

She reached out a hand, hoping he would take it so she could lead him back to bed. She didn’t want to have to wake Peter. Billy didn’t budge, still staring past her at the closed door so she tried something different. She stood and walked to the door, gesturing for him to follow. When she reached for the handle, Billy was at her side, pulling at her arm trying to get her away from the door.

“No, the monsters” he cried.

She took hold of the handle.

“Billy, I promise you, there are no monsters in your room” she said as she opened the door.

She only had a second to look in the room, but that was enough for the shiver to run down her spine.

“Oh.”

Instinct took over. A shield of shimmering red energy was conjured from fingertips as golden claws stretched from the room. They collided with a bang, knocking Wanda back, almost tripping over Billy. He pulled the hood of the cape on, clamping his hands over his ears, closing his eyes and screaming loudly. From his room, emerged a purple monstrosity. It looked vaguely like a man, very muscly but somehow still skeletal and twisted. It had purple skin stretched over the bones with bright golden claws on each hand. It made a grab for Billy.

“No!”

She blasted it with red energy, sending it flying down the hallway. It recovered quickly. She prepared for its next attack, but was distracted by more movement from the room. Another monster, almost as large as the first, appeared at the door. It was blocky, like it was made of rocks, jet black with gleaming metal hooks in place of hands. It too made a grab for Billy and she also knocked it back. The purple monster attacked again, with Wanda only just managing to hold it off. Billy wasn’t looking. He’d curled up, trying to drown out the growling sounds. Again, the purple one lashed out. Wanda let her energy flow, redirecting the claws into the wall with a loud thud. The black monster charged, pushing against her conjured shield. Wanda felt herself sliding backwards. She whipped her hands, the energy pushing, as gently as she could, Billy down the hallway, away from the danger. She let the shield go just the as the purple one struck again. The two monsters collided, falling in a heap of misshapen limbs. Wanda ran down the hall to Billy. He cried out in fear. This only seemed to attract the attention of the monsters, who untangled themselves from each other and slowly advanced towards them. The purple one tried lunging when something grabbed hold of its leg. She saw Peter, looking a mess in his pajamas, holding onto the purple one, pulling it back. The black one turned to face the new challenger, ready to strike, when it was slammed into the ceiling from underneath. She saw Vision, his face full of fury, holding the monster above his head, even as it thrashed, trying to claw at him. All of its strikes passed safely through the android. Peter was on top of the purple one, avoiding its claws while punching it repeatedly. Wanda waited for her moment and took it. As the claws made their strike, so did she, redirecting them down into the monsters chest. It let out a shriek before going limp. Movement caught her attention, above her, moving towards Billy. When it realised she’d noticed, the thing slowly, creepily, descended to be right in front of her. It was taller than she was, but slender where the others were large. It reminded her of children wearing a bedsheet to be a ghost, except this was a dirty grey colour. Occasionally the cloak tightened around what looked like a humanoid form, but just as often billowed out becoming formless. Formless that is, except for two dull green, scabby arms, appearing from within the folds. The fingers were held together like some sort of prayer. It moved without fear towards her. Unsure of this new monster, she conjured another shield, completely blocking its path. It didn’t seem fazed by this, reaching out a crusty hand to touch her shield. It was a delicate motion, but Wanda felt the force carried. Despite its appearance, this grey one was just as strong as the others. Her shield faltered, knocking her to her knees and the grey one advanced again. Vision saw this, dropping the black one to come to her aid. The grey one turned to face him, holding out its hands. Vision past straight through it, appearing on the other side, before blasting it with his energy beam. The creature flew the length of the hall. The beam had pierced the fabric or whatever it was, and the creature scrabbled at the tear, like it was a wound. The cloak tightened, compressing around the monster inside as if the air was being sucked out. They heard bones crack and the grey one went limp. This only left the black one, stood between the two sets of heroes.

“Hey! Over here!”

Peter was holding one of the purple ones arms. The black one roared and charged at him. Peter held his ground, only ducking at the last minute. The black one shrieked in pain, it had run straight into the golden claws. It let out a last guttural noise before it too went limp, slamming to the ground. It was over. All that was left was…

“Billy!” Peter yelled, racing down the length of the hall to where Billy was cowering.

He still had his hands over his ears and he was crying. He looked up when he felt the fighting stop. As Peter slid next to him, he threw himself at him.

“Jamie!” he cried, holding tightly to Peter, the red hood shielding his face from Wanda.

Vision held out a hand, helping her back to her feet, and pulled her into a tight embrace, which she gladly returned. What were those things? Something about the purple and the black one looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“It’s ok Billy. It’s over now. They’re gone” she heard Peter whispering into Billy’s ear.

He was holding onto Billy but looking at Wanda for an explanation. She had none to give. She could feel Billy’s fear ease somewhat when a surge of power caused her to double take.

“Wanda” Vision said, nudging her arm and gesturing down the hallway.

The three of them looked where he was indicating. The three monsters were evaporating in a blue mist, like they were never even there.

“Look Billy, no more monsters” Peter said, trying to get the child to look.

Billy didn’t want to. He kept his face buried in Peter’s shoulder, sobbing surprisingly quietly. It hurt her heart to see him like this. She may not have known Billy all that well as a teen, but nobody deserved this kind of fear. She was tempted to use her powers to soothe the boy but thought against it. Altering people’s minds was a delicate thing and it was far too easy to make a mess, especially when they were already emotionally compromised. Throw in Billy’s powers and who knows what would have happened. She knelt down and helped Peter bundle Billy up in his red cape. Peter stood, cradling the boy against him. He made to take him back to Billy’s room, but Wanda shook her head at him. He understood, walking past Billy’s room to his own room. Vision placed an arm around her, giving her a reassuring squeeze. She leant her head into his chest as they both stood in the hallway, watching as Peter disappeared into his room. Needless to say, nobody would be going to sleep for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this ended up being a long chapter. Would you believe me if I said the outline for this chapter was only slightly longer than the one for chapter 1? Needless to say it ended up being much longer when I wrote it. When I wrote my plan, the chapter breaks seemed to fall appropriately at certain times, but I may have to split some up further if they keep being so long.
> 
> Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


	3. Day 2: The Pictures

Peter couldn’t tell if the ache in his back was from fighting the monsters or from the way he was sleeping. Given the way that it only twinged when he moved from his position, he was inclined to believe it was the latter. He’d gone to bed after the attack with Billy cradled in his arms. The boy was still crying, wrapped in his cape like blanket. Peter had sat up in his bed, propping himself up on all of the pillows he could find in the room, hoping to make himself comfortable. There were several times he thought Billy was asleep, but any slight movement from Peter seemed to wake him up. So Peter had to be incredibly still. He was not a very patient person, being stuck in one position for hours on end was something he disliked incredibly, but he had sucked it up and got on with things. It had taken two hours for Billy to calm down enough to sleep, and half that time again before Peter could shift at all without waking him. Peter had slept badly, which he accepted would happen. Billy’s weight on him was both comforting and constricting at the same time. He opened his eyes, checking on the boy. He was still asleep. Did he dare get up? Or would Billy be woken up and start crying again? He didn’t really want to leave Billy on his own, but he also didn’t want to stay in bed either. Peter was an odd teenager like that; once he woke up, whatever the time, he needed to get up. The clock on his bedside table read 7:27am. He didn’t know whether anyone else would be up. He lay for a moment, pondering what had happened. Billy had been asleep in his room. Somehow, monsters from god only knows where had gotten into the compound, and, despite evidently being vicious and capable of doing him harm, hadn’t attacked him until Wanda had intervened. He was thankful that she had, who knows what would have happened, not just to Billy but to everyone else, if those three had been allowed to roam. He would have to check the security footage, maybe even ask FRIDAY if she’d detected anything strange entering the atmosphere. But then they had disappeared in a blue mist. It had set off his senses, but what caused it? Billy shuffled slightly, bringing Peter’s attention back to him. Could Billy have made those things? He’d seen Billy turn a swarm of bats into knives. Just yesterday, he’d seen him conjure a ladder from nothing with his powers. He added that question to a steadily growing list of things to ask people with more experience than him. There was also something else. Jamie. Billy had called him that twice now, both times when he was scared and needed comfort. It gnawed at him, not helped by the fact he was still in bed. He had to get up now. As gently as he could, he shifted to the edge of the bed, swung his legs out and stood, Billy still in his arms. It was a win-win: Billy wouldn’t be alone and Peter could get out of bed. He crept from his room and made his way to the living area. Around him, he could hear the sounds of the compound coming alive for the day. He shifted Billy slightly, grateful for his increased strength. The kitchen was empty apart from a rather tired looking Wanda. She gave them a smile as they entered before returning to her cup of coffee. She didn’t comment on Peter carrying Billy, or that Billy was still asleep. He guessed that, like him, she was glad that he was at peace, even if only for the time being. Carefully, Peter sat on a stool. Across the island from him, Wanda handed over a glass of water.

“I didn’t know if you wanted coffee or not” she said in a quiet voice.

“Probably best I don’t” he replied, equally as softly.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Wanda spoke again.

“How is he?”

“Fine once he got to sleep.”

“No more monsters?”

“None, you?”

“We searched the entire compound. No breaches, no alarms, nothing. It was like they just appeared in Billy’s room” Wanda said, setting her empty mug down.

She’d clearly been giving this a lot of thought.

“Did you not go back to bed?” Peter asked, his voice a mix of incredulousness and concern.

Wanda shook her head.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

She stopped talking as Vision entered the room. He’d gotten a lot better at going through doors but still had a habit, especially with the glass doors into the kitchen, of phasing through them rather than opening them. Wanda looked as though she wanted to comment but held her tongue. Vision smiled warmly at them, taking Wanda’s mug and putting it in the dishwasher.

“Good morning Mr Parker. I trust all is well.”

“It is, and please call me Peter.”

Mr Parker made him feel old. Vision and Wanda exchanged glances. They must have questions they wanted to ask.

“We’ve been discussing amongst ourselves what happened last night, but would value your input. After all, aside from Dr Strange, you know how Billy’s powers work best” Vision said, addressing Peter as though they were discussing the workings of a business.

“I’m no expert but go ahead.”

“We conducted a thorough search of the compound and found no sign of forced entry. FRIDAY detected no atmospheric disturbances indicating an alien presence. There was also…” Vision detailed, trailing off as he looked to Wanda.

“I felt something. It was like fear but much more powerful” she said.

“Given that the creatures were found in Billy’s room and seemed to have some kind of fixation on him, I believe that Billy may have been a cause” Vision said.

Peter considered for a moment.

“In what way?” he asked.

“According to Mr Stark’s report, Mr Kaplan seemed particularly adept at countering the effects of the reality stone, as though he himself had some measure of control over it.”

“So you’re thinking that Billy made those monsters?” Peter asked, seeing where Vision was going with this.

“We think he had a nightmare” Wanda said.

“And his powers made it real” Vision finished.

They let that thought hang in the air. It made sense to Peter. He had nothing else to add, but Wanda kept talking, telling him about what they’d discussed with Tony the night before. Eventually, silence fell. He didn’t know how long he sat there, lost in his thoughts, when he felt movement in his arms. Billy had started to stir. He looked up at Peter, eyes red and bleary.

“Hey buddy” Peter said softly, hoping to head any more tears off at the pass.

Wanda looked over from her pan of scrambled eggs and called out a greeting. Vision, not really knowing what to say, reached out to rub Billy’s back. Peter set the boy on the stool next to him, untangling him from the cape slightly. Inwardly, he was slightly glad to put the child down; his arms were starting to get sore. Billy rubbed his eyes messily. Peter had to hold back an aww sound. Billy did look quite cute, sitting on the stool, his legs dangling, wearing a too big cape with the hood pulled up. He was like Little Red Riding Hood, only with the power to make his nightmares real and nearly give Peter a heart attack at two in the morning. Wanda passed a plate of scrambled eggs to both Peter and Billy, before sitting down with her own. Once again, Billy only started eating when Peter did, and the three of them ate in silence. Billy kept looking up at Peter, Wanda and Vision, like he was waiting for some kind of reaction, but he quickly looked down at his food again when they looked over. Once they’d eaten, Vision cleared the plates. Peter needed to get changed. He also needed to call May at some point, but he had the feeling that Billy wasn’t going to let him go anywhere. He stood up, Billy hopping down from his own stool and taking hold of his pant leg, as Peter guessed he would.

“Come on, let’s go get ready” he said, holding out a hand.

Billy took the hand and they went back to Peter’s room. Only then did Peter realise something. They only had one set of clothes for Billy. They didn’t have a toothbrush or anything else for him either. He also didn’t really want to get changed in front of Billy, but that was the least of his concerns. He racked his brain as they entered the room. Billy was holding onto the cape, hugging it close. It must have fallen off as they’d walked. Peter thought for a moment and made a decision. He pulled a chair into the small en suite bathroom, setting it up by the sink. Billy was watching him curiously, hanging around the doorway.

“Come on up” Peter said, indicating the chair as wetted a small towel.

Billy did so, standing on the chair. Peter didn’t know the first thing about washing a child, or whether or not a child Billy’s age could wash themselves, but he figured he could give his face a bit of a clean. He gave Billy the towel and told him to wash his face. Billy did so, but made a noise when Peter left.

“I’ll just be in here getting myself ready” he reassured him.

He left Billy to it as he hurried to get himself dressed, not wanting the boy to walk in on him. He’d just pulled a t-shirt over his head when Billy walked in, holding the towel. He always seemed to be holding something. The thought crossed his mind as he took the towel and Billy immediately picked up his cape again. Quickly washing himself, he found Billy hovering by the door, watching him. He was definitely not going to leave him at all.

“Are you alright?” Peter asked nervously.

He wasn’t sure what answer he wanted to hear. Billy nodded slowly, not looking him in the eye. He didn’t seem alright. Peter quickly thought about what to do.

“Well then, let’s go.”

He held out a hand, which Billy took, and they walked back to the living area. Wanda was still in the kitchen, looking through something on a Stark pad. She smiled and followed them into the lounge. The whole living area was fairly open plan, nestled into the corner of the floor with big wide windows looking out over a large grassy field. It was early enough, Peter could still see people doing laps. Wanda sat on one of the large couches and looked at Peter expectantly. Now he needed to somehow entertain a five year old. Peter looked down at Billy, who had sat down on the floor leaning back against where Wanda was sat. He wasn’t very forthcoming with ideas. Peter looked around the room. There was a large TV on the wall which was tempting, but he could almost hear May talking about her friend’s kids being parked in front of screens. He didn’t want to panic, that certainly wouldn’t help. Then he saw the notebooks. Paper and pens, he could do something with that.

“Would you like to draw?” he asked.

Billy seemed to perk up, finally making eye contact with Peter. He seemed nervous to say yes, but nodded all the same.

“Will you draw with me?” Billy asked so quietly Peter struggled to hear him.

There were other things that Peter needed to do, but he couldn’t think of an excuse that a five year old would accept.

“Sure” he said, smiling.

Now Billy seemed happier, like the previous night was forgotten. Peter placed the notebooks down on the low table and Billy scooted forward. He waited for Peter to sit down as well, and for a book and pen to be given to him, before he started. Peter flicked open his own book, watching for a brief moment as Billy put pen to paper. They weren’t really pens for drawing, but they had nothing else and Billy didn’t seem to mind only having the one dark blue colour. He seemed quite happily scribbling down whatever on the paper, filling the page with lines before turning over to the next. He drew much more carefully now, as though he had an actual idea of what he wanted. Peter was at a loss of what to draw.

“You’re not drawing” Billy said.

Peter couldn’t quite tell, but he thought there was upset in there somewhere.

“I just don’t know what to do, there’s so much stuff.”

Billy thought for a moment.

“What about a big boat?” he said.

“Like a pirate ship?”

“Yeah” Billy said, nodding.

He seemed so genuine, how could Peter refuse? It wasn’t the best thing he’d ever drawn, but Billy seemed to like it when he looked over. Wanda watched them with a warm smile, still browsing the pad on her lap.

“What are you doing?” Peter asked her.

“Looking at clothes” she said, “and toys.”

Billy stole a glance at the word ‘toys’. Wanda chuckled.

“I figured that since we don’t know how long he’ll be like this, we should have a small supply. I asked Vision if he could go and get some in the meantime.”

Billy looked sad again. Wanda saw this and showed him the tablet.

“What kind of pajamas would you like?”

Billy seemed confused at the question, looking to Peter for confirmation.

“I get to choose?”

“Of course, you’re the one who’ll wear them” Peter said.

Billy shuffled over to the pad, looking at the options. He finally pointed at a pair of dark grey pajamas with stars and planets on the front.

“Those, please.”

He turned back to his drawing; Peter could see a small smile on his face. They continued like that for another hour, with Wanda showing Billy the tablet so he could make a choice. With each choice he made, Billy seemed to get more and more animated. That was until he had to choose t-shirts. Peter saw his face knit with concern. He followed where Billy was looking. There were two t-shirts he seemed to be looking at: a sky blue one with a cartoon dinosaur and a red one with Captain America’s shield. Eventually, Billy pointed to the dinosaur shirt, not looking nearly as happy with his choice.

“Did you want the red one as well?” Peter asked.

Billy looked down, shyly. He nodded very slightly, very quickly. Peter and Wanda exchanged a glance.

“You can have both, if you want” she reassured him.

Billy dared a peak up at the two.

“Really?” he squeaked.

The two of them nodded.

“Could I have both of them please?” he asked.

“Of course you can” Wanda said, tapping the tablet to make the order.

Billy smiled widely and thanked them both. It tugged at Peter’s heartstrings. To be made so happy simply by being asked what clothes he wanted to wear. Wanda finished the clothes order and moved on to some toys. Billy seemed very interested in this. He was straight over when Wanda patted the space next to her. He still seemed reluctant to get loads of toys, but at Wanda’s encouragement, he added a few more. Peter smiled watching the pair, glancing down at Billy’s notebook. He saw a mess of boxes, Peter thought they might have been buildings but they were all over the place, not just where he thought the ground should be. There were people running around. Peter didn’t understand. It must have meant something to Billy. The boy returned to his drawing, much happier than before. He must have finished that drawing because moved onto another.

“You could put Captain America in your drawing” Peter suggested.

It looked like he was drawing some kind of fight scene, there was definitely someone getting punched. Billy confidently drew a line from one of the people’s hands to the edge of the page and giggled.

“No, no.”

“Why not?” Peter asked, amused.

Whatever this was, it obviously made complete sense to the child.

“What would he be doing there? He was over there somewhere” Billy said, pointing to the other side of the table, like the drawing that showed Captain America should be over there relative to him.

Peter looked again as Billy seemed to be drawing sparks coming from the figure doing the punching. Wait, was that the Shocker, the guy with the electric gauntlet? Billy drew lines between the sparks and the figure being punched, making whooshing sounds to himself like the scene was playing in his mind. Hold on, was that him? Peter looked closer. The figure with the line going off the page, that must be him, swinging away. Realisation hit him like a ton of bricks. Billy was drawing Peter’s homecoming dance. He’d tried leaving it but the Shocker attacked him, until Billy stepped in, keeping him busy so Peter could deal with Toomes. He remembered Wanda telling him earlier that morning that Billy’s memories were still there but he couldn’t access them properly. Maybe he could remember through drawing? He was spared further thoughts when Vision announced his arrival. He had a small bundle, clothes to tide Billy over until his new ones arrived the next day, as well as a small bag.  
“I saw these while I was out and thought that Mr Kaplan might like them.”

Billy, hearing his name, looked over curiously. Peter held the bag open, beckoning the boy over to look. His eyes lit up when he saw what it was. There was a small stuffed owl and some tubs of modelling clay.

“I saw a young mother buy it for her children so I assumed it was appropriate.”

The happy glow from Billy’s face was confirmation enough. He thanked Vision for the gifts.

“Can we play with it now?” Billy asked.

His smile faltered slightly. He’d blurted out a question without thinking. Peter smiled warmly. He sat Billy down at the kitchen island and opened one of the tubs of clay for him. Billy beamed, happily shaping the clay as Peter and Wanda made lunch. It wasn’t much, a selection of small sandwiches and fruit, finger food as May would call it.

“Look, a dog” Billy said, proudly holding up his creation.

It definitely had four legs, and there was probably a head in there somewhere, but Peter and Wanda congratulated him all the same. They sat and ate, Billy not too disheartened when he was told to stop playing.

“Love the sound of happy families.”

Peter turned, seeing Tony leaning against the wall, watching them with a grin. He saw Billy curl up slightly.

“It’s ok, it’s Tony, remember” he whispered in the boys ear.

Billy nodded and uncurled, but he still threw shy looks as Tony sat down on Peter’s other side.

“How’s the wonderful world of parenthood?” Tony asked light-heartedly.

Had he not been told? He must have looked confused because Tony patted his shoulder and laughed.

“Relax kid; do you really think anything happens in this compound without my knowledge?”

“No but” Peter stammered, “I just thought if you’d known, you would have come sooner.”

“Would have loved too but I got slammed at the office” Tony said, “I had FRIDAY keep me updated though. You all handled yourself well.”

“As well as we could” Wanda said, clearing plates and handing them to Vision.

“And I hear this little one” Tony continued, leaning over slightly to address Billy, who tried shrinking into Peter slightly, “was the bravest of them all.”

He hadn’t been but Peter didn’t say that. Tony was trying to cheer Billy up. Billy looked down, squishing some clay beneath his hands, seeming embarrassed more than sad. That was a good sign, right?

“Oh, and I’ve got a surprise as well” Tony said, grabbing Billy’s attention.

He seemed reluctant to be excited, but Billy as a teenager was nothing if not curious. Evidently, this trait was present even at five years old. From his briefcase, Tony pulled a small bundle of fabric. He unrolled it to show everyone: it was a cape, like teenage Billy’s but smaller to properly fit Billy as a five year old. It even had the hood. Billy looked at it with amazement. He didn’t even flinch or shy away when Tony fastened it around his neck.

“I had it specially made, because what is a hero without a cape.”

“I don’t know; they would be Iron Man, Captain America” Peter teased, listing heroes on his fingers.

“Black Widow, the Hulk” Wanda added.

“Spiderman!” Billy chimed in.

“I’m feeling attacked right now” Tony said but he chuckled all the same, “I think I need a hero.”

Billy sat up, beaming.

“I can do it!”

He hopped down from the stool.

“I’ll save you Tony!”

“Well go get him, go get the bad guy” Tony chuckled, nudging him towards Peter.

Billy looked confused.

“But that’s Spiderman. Spiderman’s not a bad guy?”

“That’s right, but Peter Parker” Tony playfully shuddered.

Peter grinned devilishly, crouching down low, his arms out.

“I’m coming for you” he called, putting on a silly voice.

“No!” Billy ran around the kitchen island, pulling Tony with him. Peter had a sudden worry that he might be scaring him, but Billy’s giggling eased it. He chased after him.

“Wanda come on, he’ll get you too!” Billy said, grabbing Wanda’s hand as well.

He dragged Tony and Wanda through into the lounge, Peter close behind. Peter much preferred the laughter to the crying. After a few minutes of chasing, Tony breathlessly slumped on one of the couches. Wanda was hiding with Billy next to the wall cabinet while Peter pretended not to see them. He heard the patter of small footsteps and hands lightly pushed his back.

“I got you!”

Peter dramatically fell to the floor. He was glad he was on his stomach as Billy decided to jump on him, landing in a rather unfortunate place had he been rolled over. Billy crawled until he was sprawled properly on Peter’s back, giggling into Peter’s ear.

“You got me” Peter said.

He smirked, rolling over. Billy let out an excited yelp and the game continued. A short while later, Peter himself slumped on the couch next to Wanda, exhausted but laughing still. Billy was beaming as he sat down on the floor, leaning back against Peter’s legs as he grabbed one of the notebooks so he could draw some more.

“What a difference one night makes” Tony remarked.

“One night and a monster attack” Wanda said quietly.

“Well, that too. Any other problems I should know about?” Tony asked, only half seriously.

Peter opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself. He didn’t know whether he should tell Tony, he didn’t know if it was that big a deal.

“Peter?” Tony prompted.

Like always, Tony missed nothing.

“It’s probably nothing, but there has been a couple of times when Billy’s called me Jamie” he said quietly, not wanting to draw too much attention to it.

He saw Billy stop for a moment before continuing to draw.

“Interesting” Tony mused.

“Does that mean anything to you?” Wanda asked him.

“He never mentioned anyone called Jamie before” Peter answered, looking down at the drawing boy.

If child Billy wanted to say anything, if he could even remember, Peter figured he would tell them. Maybe. Maybe just to Peter. He made a mental note to ask later. He fixed Tony with a questioning look.

“What’s that look for?”

“Does the name mean anything to you?”

“Why would it?”

“You can’t tell me you haven’t done any snooping around” Peter said incredulously.

“What kind of person do you think I am?” Tony said, putting on a show of being offended.

“Didn’t you say you hacked into SHIELD’s files pretty much as soon as you stepped foot on a helicarrier for the first time?” Wanda countered.

Tony looked sheepish, but smiled.

“You got me. I did some digging, tried to find anything on Billy’s past, which was surprisingly difficult.”

“How so?” Peter asked.

Surely with all of Stark’s resources it would be fairly easy to find information.

“I’ve only got the name. Billy Kaplan. I searched through databases of birth certificates for the entire city looking for a match and got nothing. Just for fun, I even looked at death certificates. There was a Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan who died in a car crash but I couldn’t find any record of them having a son.”

“They might not have been his parents. Who knows who they actually were? We don’t even know if that’s his real name” Peter thought out loud.

“But why would he want to hide his real name?” Wanda asked.

“It comes back to the parents. Peoples issues usually start with them” Tony said, speaking from experience.

Billy shook his head, though Peter was the only one to notice.

“Don’t have any” he said under his breath.

Peter barely heard it. Judging by her sharp breath, Wanda heard it too. She typed into her phone. There was a buzz and Tony checked his. He raised his eyebrow at Wanda, wondering why she hadn’t just said it out loud, but he understood when he read it. Peter began to understand as well. Dr Strange had said that Billy wasn’t worried about anyone missing him, which would make sense only if he didn’t have any family.

“I guess that’s where I should look next. Children’s homes and orphanages. Hopefully their records are formatted correctly, god knows the birth registry wasn’t” Tony said.

He checked his watch and bid them goodbye, getting a high five from Billy as he went.

“I guess we should start making dinner” Wanda said, standing up.

Peter stay sat down, dwelling on his thoughts perhaps too long as Wanda poked his shoulder.

“We includes you as well.”

So Peter found himself rolling meatballs. It wasn’t a complicated dinner, not at all, but like so many meals with the Avengers, they had no idea how many to cook for. At least, that was what Wanda said. Billy wanted to help, so he was next to Peter. He tried his best, very slowly managing to make a single meatball. When he finished, he held it up for Peter’s approval.

“Good job B.”

Billy smiled. The food was being cooked and Wanda sent Peter to set the table. Billy again wanted to help so he made sure all the places had a napkin. They would be eating at the dining table, as opposed to the kitchen island. It was a glass table, Peter thought it looked quite expensive. It wasn’t that large or at least Peter didn’t seem to think so. It would comfortably sit eight, ten at a squeeze. But then, when was the last time all of the Avengers had sat down and eaten together. Two sets of footsteps alerted him to company. He turned, seeing Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes enter the living area. Vision had said they’d be arriving today. Billy froze when he saw them, clutching tighter to the napkins in his hands. He silently shuffled behind Peter. His curiosity got the better of him though and he stuck his head out. Steve watched this with a bemused smile. He’d obviously not been told what was going on. Wanda embraced the pair of them warmly.

“Did everything go alright?” she asked, breaking the small amount of tension that had built.

“Yeah, just about” Steve replied, still looking at Billy.

Peter tripped pushing Billy out from behind him but Billy didn’t budge. Steve chuckled.

“Who’s this?” he asked.

Peter glanced down at Billy, who was only barely peeking out from behind him.

“This is Billy” he answered.

“Wait. Billy as in Wiccan?” Steve asked, frowning in confusion.

Bucky also looked confused. Though neither of them could be considered stupid, they both tried to view things as simply as possible. Even now that they were in modern times with a more modern understanding, they tried framing the unusual in terms they could comprehend. But even Peter had to admit, there was no way of framing your teammate being turned into a five year old in any way and not have it seem weird. Steve regained his composure and bent low to Billy’s level.

“Hi Billy, I’m Steve. Remember me?”

“He doesn’t exactly remember” Wanda said, “I’ll explain later,” when the two men looked at her.

Peter gave Billy another nudge.

“It’s Captain America” he reassured him.

Billy’s eyes widened a little but he still didn’t come out.

“Steve likes to draw too” Peter said to Billy, hoping to coax him out, “why don’t you show him your drawings from earlier.”

“I’d love to see them” Steve added, taking Peter’s lead.

Billy, slowly, came out from behind Peter. He edged towards the lounge, before taking Peter’s hand and pulling him with him. Steve followed cautiously, not knowing how far to go with the boy. Billy handed Steve his notebook, saying nothing, and Steve flicked through it. Peter only just noticed the other notebook on the table, his notebook. It only had the pirate ship in it, but he saw that Billy had added characters. They were rough, practically stick figures. There were three, one with long hair and another that was smaller than the other two. Who were they?

“These are good Billy” Steve praised.

Billy smiled shyly. Wanda called them to the table and dinner was served. Billy, of course, sat next to Peter. He looked at the plate of spaghetti and meatballs in front of him, as though unsure what to do. Peter was also unsure. Was it too much for him? Did he need help with something? Please say he didn’t need Peter to feed him. Billy looked at Peter shyly, not making eye contact.

“It’s too big” Billy said quietly.

What?

“What’s too big? The plate?” Peter asked.

Billy shook his head, scooping up some of the spaghetti on his fork and held it up slightly, trying to make a point. The spaghetti was long, slathered in sauce.

“I don’t want to make a mess” Billy said.

“Would you like it cut up for you?” Peter asked, hoping he was right.

Billy shyly nodded. That was alright, cutting up pasta and meatballs he could do. Once that was done, they began eating. Conversation was slow as people were enjoying the food. Steve talked about the mission, with Bucky occasionally making a comment here or there. Peter was happy to listen, always keeping an eye on Billy. Billy seemed to be putting all of his concentration on his food. He scooped it on his fork and very carefully moved it to his mouth to eat it. He’d said he didn’t want to make a mess, but Peter hadn’t realised he truly meant it. However, he was still only a five year old, and mess is an unfortunate side effect of that age. He had been so careful but the piece of meatball slipped from his fork, landing on the floor with a splat.

“No!” he cried.

He pushed away from the table, trying to get out of his chair to pick it up. As he did so, Peter felt a chill course through his body. Danger. What, why were his senses going off now? Billy pushed away from the table and there was a small blue flash. His plate skidded across the table, lightly bumping into Wanda’s, who was sat opposite. There was a slight hissing noise and Peter saw the spilled meatball was gone, a tiny black mark on the floor where it had been. Realisation surged his system like the chills had. Billy had accidentally used his powers again. Billy, still reaching for the food, had realised it too. His breathing quickened, tears formed in his eyes and he looked to the adults in the room. Wanda had reached the same conclusion as Peter. Steve and Bucky looked a bit shocked, not expecting anything like this to happen. Billy backed away from the table, almost panting. Peter, worried, left his own chair.

“I didn’t … I … I’m … I’m sorry” Billy stammered.

Peter reached out to him but Billy flinched away. Peter laid his hand gently on the boys shoulder.

“Billy, it’s alright.”

The boy shook his head rapidly.

“It’s not … it’s … I used … I made a mess.”

“And we would have cleaned it up. You’re not in trouble” Peter reassured him.

Billy didn’t look like he believed him so Peter pulled him into a hug. It took a few minutes for Billy to calm down enough to return to the table. Both Steve and Bucky obviously had questions, but both let them remain unasked for the time being. The rest of dinner was almost uncomfortably silent. Billy only really picked at his food, not wanting to scoop anymore in case it spilled. When Peter couldn’t convince that he wouldn’t be in trouble even if he did spill, he gave him some extra meatballs, something he could stab instead. Bucky insisted on helping clear up, he’d looked a bit uncomfortable after Billy’s meltdown, so Peter took Billy back to the lounge. The boy still seemed upset from dinner and Peter had no words to help cheer him up.

“Would you like to draw with me?”

Steve was asking Billy, who shrank against the leather of the chair.

“It’s ok Billy. Steve is a really good artist” Peter told him.

Billy inched over to the table but made no move to start drawing, so Steve opened his sketchbook, showing what he’d done. Peter was relieved. It had the desired effect and Billy was starting to open up again. There was still something distracting him though. He kept glancing across the room. Peter followed his gaze to the clock on the wall. How was a clock so distracting? Peter got his answer soon, when he saw Billy yawning. The clock read 8:33pm, that was bedtime, surely? When he mentioned this to Billy, he closed up again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned.

“Can I sleep with you?” Billy asked, barely more than a whisper.

“No Billy, you sleep in your bed” Peter said, hoping he was saying the right words.

“But I don’t want to be on my own” Billy said, head down like he didn’t want to admit this.

Peter didn’t know what to say. How do you tell a five year old that he isn’t alone? How do you tell a five year old that he’s friends with Earth’s mightiest heroes, who’ve already fought monsters to keep him safe?

“Billy” Wanda said, kneeling down beside the boy, “it’s ok, you’re safe in your room. You don’t have to worry.”

Tears were starting to form, even if he wasn’t yet crying. Peter quickly looked around the room. Bucky was looking more and more uncomfortable and Steve looked at a loss. Then his eyes came upon the stuffed owl that Vision had gotten him. He presented it to Billy, who looked at it through wet eyes.

“Do you know the great thing about owls? When we all go to sleep, they stay awake. They’ve got these big eyes to see in the dark. If we need them to, they can watch over us, to make sure nothing bad happens in the night. Vision told me that this owl wanted to do that for you. He wanted to keep you safe” Peter explained, making things up as he went along.

Billy listened, taking in his story with rapt attention. It was the sort of thing Peter had seen on TV, parents reassuring scared youngsters with stories of guardian angels and the like. Apparently, Avengers figures were popular protectors against bad dreams. The internet said that Hulk plushies were the best monster repellents, because what monster would dare try and beat the Hulk. Peter didn’t have a Hulk, so the owl would have to do. Billy seemed to believe it, because he accepted the animal and hugged it tightly, looking very tired. Peter couldn’t blame him; he also felt his bed calling him.

“Why don’t we get you ready for bed and Peter will be there in a minute?” Wanda said.

She was giving Peter a sympathetic look, obviously sensing his need for a break, however small. Billy looked like he wanted to protest, but Peter simply nodded and Billy accepted it, taking Wanda’s hand and being led to his room.

“You handled that well” Steve told him, Bucky nodding in agreement.

Peter thanked the two, clearing up his and Billy’s notebooks. He deposited them in his room. Taking a breath, he walked down the corridor to Billy’s room. He was in some pajamas, a soft white cotton top and shorts. He was sat on the edge of the bed, Wanda beside him. She looked like she’d given up trying to get him to lie down. When Peter entered, he shot up, hugging Peter’s legs. Peter scooped him up, dumping him on the bed.

“Ok now, into bed.”

Billy wriggled under the covers as Peter tucked him in. He suddenly sat up, looking about frantically. Peter saw something soft and fluffy on the floor, the owl. Billy calmed down when he had it back in his arms, holding it tightly. Peter held his hand, rubbing the back of it soothingly.

“If you need anything in the night, my room is two doors that way,” he said, pointing back towards the living area, “and Wanda’s is around the corner, first door on the right,” pointing away from the living area.

Billy nodded tiredly. Peter got up and switched the light off.

“Good night” he softly called into the room as he closed the door.

Wanda was stood waiting for him outside. Relief at the relative calmness of this bedtime flooded through him and he wrapped her in a hug.

“What’s this for?” she asked, returning the hug all the same.

“For being there. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a parent.”

“You’re not his parent.”

“Sure feels like I am.”

“I know,” she said, pulling away, keeping her hands reassuringly on his shoulders, “and you’re doing a great job so far.”

“Thanks Wanda.”

They walked back to the living area. They had, after all, promised to explain things to Steve and Bucky.

“Here’s hoping we don’t have another monster attack.”

 

1:30am. This was early, even for Wanda. Still, as she sat in the kitchen, sipping her glass of water, at least it was peaceful. Steve and Bucky had accepted their explanation of what had happened, and also accepted that neither Peter nor Wanda knew when Billy would be changed back. Peter had gone to bed not long after Billy. She didn’t blame him. Billy stuck to Peter’s side like glue. Even when he’d gone to get ready with Wanda, he’d been looking at the door constantly and wouldn’t even think about getting into bed until Peter came. She knew that kids often attached themselves to certain people more than others; she’d seen that growing up. Hell, she’d done that growing up. But with Billy it seemed stronger, like she’d only seen kids act with their parents. Billy didn’t have any parents, or so he said. The peaceful calm was broken, by a slight sniffing noise. She startled slightly, looking for the source. She saw movement in the shadows behind her. Turning, she saw Billy, tears running down his cheeks, his owl squeezed tightly in his arms.

“Billy, what’s the matter” she asked, concerned.

Her mind flashed to last night and the monster attack. Billy wasn’t acting like he did then though. He wasn’t scared, he just looked upset. She gave him a hug before asking him again.

“I don’t … know where … Peter is” Billy said, between quiet little sobs.

Wanda smiled warmly. The easiest thing to do was just take him to Peter, but he needed to be able to sleep in his own room. They didn’t know how long this would last and Peter was only a teenager with his own life. He couldn’t be expected to drop everything.

“I think you’re very tired Billy” she said, holding out her hand, “I’ll take you back to bed.”

Billy shook his head.

“No. I want Peter.”

His voice rose slightly. Wanda didn’t want him to start crying loudly. It would only wake everybody up, and she didn’t want another panic thinking there were monsters.

“But he’s asleep now Billy.”

Billy cried quietly. The problem with being able to read people was also being to feel what they were feeling second-hand. It was such a lonely sorrow she was feeling from Billy right now, reminding her of the home she’d lived in after her parents had been killed. Back then, she’d sought comfort from her brother. Now, she knew that only one person could soothe Billy. She held out her hand again.

“Ok. Let’s go find Peter.”

Billy looked to see if she was lying before taking her hand. She led him down the corridor to Peter’s room. Using her powers, she sent him an early warning. Sure enough, she didn’t even have to knock. Peter’s door was already open and she sent Billy in, closing the door behind him.

“Sleep well Billy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I definitely feel like I'm pushing it with the chapter length.
> 
> Please let me know what you think of this chapter. Good, bad, lamentations about the weather, I don't care, I want to know.


	4. Day 3: The Play-Doh

Sleep well Billy did, but that didn’t stop him from waking up at 7:00am. Peter could feel the boy wriggling next to him in the bed. He remembered Wanda waking him up. She hadn’t said anything, hadn’t physically done it, it was more of feeling that he had to be awake. Almost as soon as he’d opened his eyes, the door was opened and a crying Billy entered. Peter, not knowing what else to do, let the boy crawl into bed and cuddle next to him. He’d calmed down fairly quickly, going to sleep within half an hour. Peter had been tempted to take him back to his own room, but sleep kept pulling at him. So now he’d been woken up, and the cloying feeling of still being in bed was creeping on him. He turned slightly, better able to see Billy. Billy was pressed up against him, facing away. He must have been awake; he was stroking the owl and occasionally making a little noise like he was playing some kind of silent game. Peter rubbed his eyes and the boy turned over, looking at Peter expectantly. Well, they were both awake, might as well both get up. Peter pulled back the covers and the pair of them left the room, Billy with a tight hold on Peter’s hand. It was Sunday and it was still early. There wasn’t much life in the compound yet. The kitchen was empty and Peter felt his stomach growl. He could make his own breakfast, sure, but would it be enough for Billy. He rooted through the cupboards, looking at what was there. He settled on oatmeal, something simple and as his aunt was constantly telling him, a good way to start the day. Billy didn’t complain when the bowl was set in front of him. Like always, he waited for Peter before starting, and like the previous evening, he was careful not to make a mess. It was harder than with the meatballs. The oatmeal was perhaps too runny, Peter thought, as a dollop dropped off his spoon, splashing on the table next to his bowl. Billy giggled slightly. He wasn’t quite so careful with his own food. By the time they finished, there were flecks of the oatmeal around each of their bowls. Billy started to look upset, expecting some kind of negative reaction from Peter, but Peter headed that off quickly, calmly cleaning up his own mess before handing the cloth to Billy. They returned to Billy’s room to get him changed into fresh clothes, Peter nipping back to his own room to get changed himself. He returned, finding Billy stood waiting anxiously for him. He lightened up immediately and the pair went back to the lounge.

“So Billy, what should we do today?” Peter asked.

It was still early. He didn’t want to run around so much and potentially wake people up. Fortunately, the tubs of modelling clay were still on the table from yesterday, and Billy reached for them.

“Can we play with these, please?” Billy asked.

“Of course we can.”

They opened the tubs. They only had three basic colours, red, green and blue, but Billy didn’t seem to care. He was rolling a ball of red.

“What are you making?” Peter asked as Billy stretched and flattened the ball, making it a more boxy shape.

“A pig.”

“Why’re you making a pig?”

“For the farm” Billy responded, as though it had been obvious.

Peter chuckled. Of course, how could he have been so stupid?

“What other animals are going to be on your farm?”

“We need a cow and chicken and a dog and … and … and a horse” Billy listed, his thoughts too fast for his words to keep up.

So they sat constructing the animals. Peter was quite proud of his cow and was impressed when Billy showed him his finished pig. The chicken ended up being the same size as the pig, and the dog the cow. Peter was trying to make the horse, and make it look different from the cow, as Billy made some long strips of the clay. He squished them together, making what looked like walls. He fit them together, but when he tried putting a roof over it, it collapsed. Undeterred, he tried again but got the same result. Peter wasn’t surprised. He guessed that this was the farm house, but it was too big for the modelling clay to hold together.

“Why not make it a bit smaller?” he suggested when Billy failed for the third time.

“No! They all need to fit!” Billy cried, getting upset that it wasn’t working.

“I know, but sometimes we need to pretend. Like this.”

He showed Billy, pretending that the dog was walking into the house. As it entered, he quickly whipped it under the table. Billy watched him curiously.

“And when he wants to come out…”

Peter retrieved the clay dog from its place, pretending like it had just walked out of the house. He watched, waiting to see if this was satisfactory. It was the sort of thing he’d done as a child when he inevitably made his Lego cars too small for people to actually sit in. Billy smiled and remade his house, smaller than before, his upset forgotten. Peter held his breath slightly as Billy tried putting a roof on it. It worked and Billy clapped. Peter ruffled his hair. They now had their farm animals and a house for them.

“The pig and the cow need to be let out for the day” Billy said, matter-of-factly.

“Yes sir” Peter said, playing along.

They pushed the clay figures around the table. Billy obviously had no idea how a farm actually ran, or maybe his five-year old brain was making what he evidently thought were improvements. The compound woke up around them, but the farm was being invaded! They needed more animals to defend it. Wanda poked her head in after a while, amused as the horse had been abducted by aliens and the chicken was arguing with the dog about whether they should go save her.

“But she’s our friend!” the dog in Billy’s left hand said.

“But the aliens will get us!” the chicken in his right said back.

Peter rolled a couple of aliens towards him. They were only balls of clay which Peter squished around to make them look vaguely like eyeballs, but they were good enough.

“We’re coming for you, animals of the farm” he said, putting on a squeaky voice.

Billy laughed.

“No. Run away” he yelled, running to the other side of the low table.

Peter brought the pig out of the house.

“I’ll save you!” he said, his pig voice low and heroic, mimicking Thor, not that he’d ever tell the god of thunder.

“But he’s just a pig, he can’t save them” Billy said, talking to Peter, not the animals.

“No, but this pig can. He’s special because you made him” Peter said, hoping he hadn’t just ruined the game.

Billy knelt next to him at the low table.

“I make things and they’re special?”

Peter nodded. Was this Billy asking about his powers, or just in the context of their little farm game?

“And when you make things they’re rubbish” Billy teased, grinning widely.

Peter gasped but couldn’t help grinning himself. Did Billy, the shy little boy who was worried about making a mess or even asking a question, just give him cheek?

“Oh, really!”

He picked the boy up and dumped him on the couch behind him. The boy giggled and then howled with laughter as Peter tickled him.

“No” he protested very weakly, wriggling about, laughing his head off.

They eventually came to a stop, Billy trying to catch his breath.

“My tummy hurts” he panted.

“You were laughing too much.”

“You tickled me!” Billy accused, pointing a finger at Peter.

“And I’ll do it again” Peter said, reaching over to Billy jokingly.

Billy responded by attacking Peter with a hug. He held on tightly, burying his head in Peter’s shoulder. Peter leaned back on the couch, stifling a yawn. The clock on the wall read 10:33am. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew Billy would never let him go back to his room. He felt Billy yawn as well. Good to know he wasn’t the only one who’d tired himself out. Billy wriggled until he was nestled more comfortably in Peter’s arms. Peter rested his head on the back of the couch. As he nodded off, he hoped there wouldn’t be any embarrassing pictures taken.

 

She had been to the Avengers compound exactly once, and truthfully, she hoped that she’d never have to go there again. It made her wince to think about her nephew’s hero life, but May was nothing if not resilient. She had been angry when she found out originally, then scared, then some pride began creeping in. Now, she was one part proud of Peter for the good that he does and another part terrified that he’d get hurt. And oh how Peter had been hurt. She refused to hear about his trip into space. It didn’t bare thinking about really. May tried not to worry but she couldn’t help it. Every night when Peter went out, she’d sit at home, trying not to keep looking at her phone. She’d definitely gotten better, but the temptation was still there. Peter did his best to let her know when he was coming home, which always eased her mind somewhat. But when she got the message on Friday, saying that Peter would be back late but couldn’t explain right then, the alarm bells rang. She had almost called him right then and there, but decided against it. Peter was still a child, yes, but he was also a teenager. Teenagers needed some space, and Peter had always told her what was bothering him. Eventually. So she waited, eventually getting a call from Tony Stark of all people.

_“Hey May, it’s Tony.”_

_“Tony, what … where’s Peter? Is he alright?”_

_“Yes May, he’s fine. There’s just a bit of a situation going on at the moment.”_

He’d told her about his friend being turned into a five year old, that Peter was the only one he seemed comfortable with, that he may not be able to get home that evening.

_“Could you please Peter on the phone?”_

_“He’s indisposed at the moment.”_

_She heard a faint whine on the other end, which sounded almost like a child crying._

_“Oh dear.”_

_“What’s going on Tony?”_

_“The little one’s being fussy with his food. I’ll get Peter to call you in the morning.”_

Peter hadn’t called him in the morning, or at all for that matter. May looked up at the large building. She’d called Stark, who’d admitted that telling Peter to call her slipped his mind. She demanded to see Peter, so Stark arranged for her visit. His driver, Happy, had picked her up, apparently so that there wouldn’t be too many questions asked at the front gates. The security was tight, but Happy was waved through with few questions about the guest he was transporting.

“Take the elevator to the third floor, hang a right and continue on down the corridor. Should be through the door at the end.”

Those were her instructions. She walked with purpose, meeting few people as she strode to the elevator. Most didn’t give her more than a passing glance, though a few did do a double take. They mustn’t get that many civilians here, she thought. The elevator arrived at the third floor and she turned right. Before her was a large glass door, through which she could see a lounge. This must be where the famous Avengers live. She cautiously approached the glass. Should she knock? Did she need to be let in? Would the Avengers react badly at a stranger just walking into their home? Peering through the glass, she didn’t see any movement. Maybe they were all busy? She saw, just peeking out over one of the couches, a tuft of brown hair. There was Peter. She gave the room another look before entering. No alarms went off, no security rushed in so she assumed she was fine, but still, she walked slowly. She moved around, hoping to surprise Peter. But he didn’t notice her, he was actually fast asleep. He looked so peaceful, it warmed her heart. He twitched his arms tighter around the boy who was curled up on him, his head buried in Peter’s chest. This must be his friend Billy, the one who’d turned into a child. She’d met Billy a couple of times before and had quite liked him. Of course she hadn’t really believed Stark when he told her what had happened, but seeing it was something else entirely.

“Can I help you?”

She whipped around, startled at the slightly accented voice behind her. Standing in the doorway to what looked like the dining area was a short woman with long, light brown hair. She was regarding her with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. May was sure she saw a flash of red in her eyes. Suddenly, Tony Stark was with her, smiling at May.

“May, it’s nice to see you again.”

The woman’s expression softened.

“You’re Peter’s Aunt May?” she asked.

May nodded. The woman smiled.

“Come on through” Stark said, beckoning her to follow them.

May did so, leaving the lounge and entering a kitchen and dining area. There was a box sat on the dining table.

“This is Wanda, and I believe you’ll recognise the captain” Tony said, introducing her to the others.

Wanda shook her hand politely. She tried not to stare at Captain America, who was gulping down a bottle of water. She guessed he’d been training, or something. She knew his actual name, few people didn’t, and try as she might she couldn’t quite shake the feeling of looking at a celebrity. Thankfully, she didn’t do anything embarrassing and the captain left shortly after. Remembering why she was here, she rounded on Stark.

“I want answers” was all she said.

Stark and Wanda exchanged a look.

“Ok, fair enough. The simple explanation is that Peter’s friend Billy was turned into a child again, Peter’s the only one he’s really comfortable around, he still has his powers so it’s dangerous if gets too angry or scared, whenever he’s left alone, particularly by Peter, he gets scared, potentially triggering his powers, so that’s why Peter’s been staying here.”

Stark rattled off that explanation, not leaving room for May to interrupt.

“He was supposed to call me yesterday” she said when she had processed the information.

“He had a busy day yesterday, what with looking after a five year old.”

“You left a teenager in charge of looking after a young child!?”

“We do what we can to help” Wanda cut in, clearly understanding her tone, “but like Tony said, Peter’s the only one he’s really comfortable with.”

May thought for a moment.

“Are you sure there’s no-one else who can look after him? I mean, Peter’s got school tomorrow” she said, trying not to sound too selfish on Peter’s behalf.

Wanda looked slightly crestfallen.

“I guess I could, but he’ll only go with other people when Peter’s there as well.”

“What about his family? His parents?” May asked.

Wanda looked to Stark to answer, which he did.

“Doesn’t have any, or none to our knowledge, but speaking of” he said, turning to Wanda, “I looked into those two, Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan. I dug even deeper and it turns out they adopted a baby by the name of William.”

“Billy!” Wanda let out.

“It would seem to be. Only thing was they died two days after taking the baby in. I tracked what happened to the child afterward. He went to an orphanage, but they kept the surname.”

Neither May nor Wanda knew how to react.

“So he grew up in care?” Wanda asked carefully.

“Looks like it” Tony replied.

Silence fell over the three of them. Eventually, May broke it.

“I think I’ll go wake Peter up.”

She left the kitchen. Peter was exactly where she’d left him. Both he and Billy were still fast asleep. Gently, she shook Peter’s shoulder.

“Peter.”

Peter woke with a slight start, startling again when he saw her.

“May, what … what are you doing here?” he asked, though he was obviously pleased to see her.

His sudden movements woke the boy in his arms. He whined and rubbed his eyes messily. When he realised that there was someone else with them, he froze, somehow curling up further into Peter. May saw this, taking a slight step back as she knelt down.

“Hi there, my name’s May. I’m Peter’s auntie” she introduced herself warmly.

Billy said nothing, glancing up at Peter for comfort. Peter rubbed his arms, soothing him. Billy looked back at May and smiled shyly.

“May?”

Peter was looking at her, both confused and worried. She hadn’t answered him and he must have been thinking that he was in trouble. She smiled warmly, putting him at ease.

“I just came to check up on you. You were supposed to call me yesterday.”

Peter’s eyes widened.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t even…”

She held a finger to his lips, shushing him, stopping him from babbling. Billy seemed to find this amusing.

“I know” she said, looking at Billy was a mischievous glint in her eyes, “I’m sure this one has been quite the handful.”

She reached out a hand, poking it into Billy’s side. He hadn’t been expecting it and startled, but laughed all the same at the tickling.

“No, stop!” Billy cried, not really meaning it.

“I don’t think I will” she said, grabbing the boy and tickling him more, lifting him off Peter.

Billy wriggled and squirmed, laughing his head off. Peter laughed as well, joining in the tickling. Billy managed to get free, running behind the couch as May embraced her nephew.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

“I’m fine, just tired.”

May saw Billy return, staying just out of their reach, holding a stuffed owl tightly. Seeing it, a look dawned on Peter’s face.

“May, did you see a box at all?”

“In the kitchen, why?”

“Hey Billy, I think all of your new stuff is here” he said to the boy.

Billy’s eyes lit up briefly. He looked like he wanted to run off and find it, to go get whatever was in it, but he held back. It made sense, May thought. If he’d grown up in care, he probably never had a lot of stuff, anything new was never entirely his and could be given to someone else just as easily as it was given to him.

“Come on” Peter beckoned, holding out his hand.

Billy hesitated for a moment, but his excitement eventually got the better of him. He took Peter’s hand and he was all but dragging him through to the kitchen. When he saw the box, he let go, running to it. May didn’t know what was in it, but it must have been somewhat heavy because Billy struggled to move the box. He was giving it a good try. Wanda and Tony watched with amused expressions, until the box lurched and looked like it would fall on top of him. Peter caught the box and moved it more securely onto the table, making Billy whine quietly.

“Why don’t we take this to your room, so we don’t make a mess in here” Peter said to him.

Billy considered before nodding in agreement. Peter picked up the box easily, but Billy wanted to help with it.

“Can you help me Billy? It’s just that I don’t know where I’m going and I don’t want to get lost” May asked, hoping it would keep Billy from getting in Peter’s way.

Billy looked to Peter, as though asking if it was ok, if May was ok. When Peter nodded, he tentatively took May’s hand and began leading her towards his room. He kept looking back at Peter, who nodded every time. They reached Billy’s room and Billy opened the door for her. It was nice, lightly furnished and didn’t look like it had seen much use until these last couple of days. Peter set the box down on the bed and Billy immediately jumped up, trying to get into it. Peter made him wait until he’d opened the seals and together they opened it up. May could see inside was several sets of clothes as well as a handful of books and toys. Just like a child his age would, Billy started pulling things out and was about to just throw them away to get the next thing when May made him stop.

“Ok, hold on there.”

Billy did stop. He looked nervous. May, not realising that he would react that way, quickly continued.

“This is a lovely room. We don’t want to mess it up now, do we” she said, her voice calm and warm, hoping that it would defuse the situation.

Billy’s shoulders slumped and she saw his excitement start to leave.

“Hey” Peter said, getting the boy’s attention, “it’s ok Billy. Getting new things is exciting. We just need to make sure we keep things tidy.”

Oh do we indeed, Mr Parker. May didn’t let that show on her face as she filed it away for later.

“We’ll put things away, and then we can play” Peter said.

The boy gave a weak smile and they continued emptying the box. Billy actually seemed to know what he was doing when it came to tidying up, which surprised May at first. In no time at all, the box was empty and his room looked more like a five year old lived there.

“What shall we play with first?” Peter asked, sounding excited.

Whether it was sincere or not, May couldn’t tell, but it didn’t have the intended effect as Billy looked hesitant to disturb his now tidy room. Again wanting to defuse the situation, May picked up one of the items: a tub of Play-Doh.

“We made a farm” Billy said quietly, seeing it in her hand.

“You did. I love farms” May said.

She didn’t, but Billy didn’t need to know that.

“Can you show me?”

Billy looked for Peter’s approval, or reassurance. She was still trying to decide which it was. Of course, Peter gave it and Billy reached out for May’s hand.

“So you don’t get lost” he said in a small voice.

May gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as he led her back to the lounge, while making sure that Peter was right behind them at all times. There on the low table in the lounge, she could see several figures made of clay. She had no idea what they were supposed to be but she assumed these were the farm animals. Billy pulled them over and gave them to her one at a time.

“And this is the pig, Peter said he’s special ‘cause I made him.”

Each one had something about it that Billy rambled on about, that was until he got to the dog.

“And this is the dog, oh.”

The dog looked like it had been squished. He looked up at Peter, upset.

“I squished dog, when you tickled me.”

Peter was by his side in an instant, reassuring him.

“It’s ok Billy. You know the great thing about this stuff, you can remake anything that gets broken.”

Billy looked like it didn’t matter, but Peter took the clay figure from him and reworked it, putting it back into what May assumed was the correct shape.

“There, see. Good as new.”

Billy looked a bit disheartened still.

“Could you show me how your farm works? Only I need to know how for when my cat comes to visit” May said, getting Billy’s attention.

“But you don’t have a cat” Billy said, confused, his upset forgotten.

May held up the tub of Play-Doh she was still carrying.

“Not yet” she said with a smile.

This definitely cheered the boy up.

“Yeah I can. Peter can too. He showed me how to make the house work” Billy said, excitement slowly creeping back into his voice, “he can show you too,” looking at Peter.

Peter looked like he had before, when he remembered he hadn’t called her.

“House. Work. My homework! I haven’t done it!” he panicked.

“It’s ok, you can do it now” May suggested.

He had gotten up.

“I can’t…”

“What’s wrong?” Billy asked, sensing something was up, “are you not playing?”

“Billy, I can’t. I’ve got work I need to do” it looked like it pained him to speak.

May understood when she saw Billy’s face fall. It was like he’d been crushed.

“Oh” he said in such a tiny voice that May could barely hear him.

“But I’ll be really quick, I promise, and then we can play.”

Billy said nothing, which didn’t help at all. May heard a door open and saw Wanda standing there, watching them. She quickly read the room, from Peter’s panicked face to Billy’s crestfallen look. She knelt beside Billy as well, bringing his face up so he was looking at her.

“You’re a big boy Billy, right?” she said, continuing when Billy nodded, “well when you get to be as big a boy as Peter, there are some times when you want to play but can’t.”

Billy shook his head looking away from her, but that only made him look at May, so she followed Wanda’s lead.

“How about we play while Peter does his work? And if you’re a good boy, like I know you are, we can all do something fun when he’s finished.”

Billy trapped between the two women, finally made up his mind, nodding slowly, defeated. Peter looked incredibly guilty, leaving to get his school things. He returned and sat at a small desk in the lounge, well within Billy’s line of sight. Billy started playing only half-heartedly. He looked over at Peter every few minutes, as though wishing he would join him. May and Wanda tried engaging him, which did start to work. He perked up when May needed help with her cat making, and then Wanda didn’t know the horse could fly, so of course he needed to show her. Though he still glanced at Peter frequently, he laughed and looked to be enjoying himself. More Play-Doh was brought through and more characters for the farm were made, including another dog, three more pigs and a horse.

“Can this horse fly too?” May asked as she pretend galloped it to join its friends.

“No, it’s really fast” Billy said, with all the certainty of a five year old.

“I think it should fly, or it’s friend will be lonely in the sky” Wanda suggested.

“No it can run. It can run,” Billy insisted, “ **it can run**.”

May was certain she saw his eyes flash bright blue. There was an accompanying flash around the clay horse, which would have been shocking enough, but then the horse started running, like it was the real thing. It galloped across the table, falling off the other side. May watched it go, eyes wide with shock. The little clay horse stopped moving when it hit the floor.

“I’m sorry” Billy whispered beside her.

May turned to face him. He was rocking, hands wrapped tightly around his chest, hugging it tightly. Tears were starting to form in his eyes and he kept whispering “I’m sorry” over and over again. She felt movement and Peter pulled Billy into a hug. Billy let it happen, not looking at any of them.

“I didn’t mean to” the boy said.

“We know Billy” Wanda said, rubbing his back softly.

May was at a loss for words. Even if she’d had them, she would have kept her mouth shut. Whatever this was, it had happened before, and Peter and Wanda looked like they knew what to do. Peter sat Billy down on the couch and knelt in front of him. Billy refused to meet his gaze and flinched ever so slightly when Peter started talking.

“Billy, we’re not mad. It’s just like the meatballs, you’re not in trouble.”

“But I shouldn’t … I didn’t mean to … I’m sorry” Billy had started sobbing.

Peter and Wanda exchanged a look.

“Listen to me” Peter said, nudging Billy’s chin so he was looking at him, “you have powers. Incredible, amazing powers. You shouldn’t be afraid of them. Look around, you’re living with someone who can stick to walls, someone who can read minds, an android and two super soldiers. We all have powers, and sure, sometimes we lose control, but we make do whenever it happens and we learn from it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to be afraid of.”

“But … I was told not to … I make bad things happen” Billy said between sobs.

“But you also make good things happen, don’t forget that” Wanda said, joining Peter in reassurance.

Billy had stopped sobbing, but his eyes were still wet.

“Do you know what Billy? I know something for definite. I know that you are a good boy” May said.

Billy shook his head.

“I’m not … I’m…” he stuttered.

“Yes you are. We asked you to let Peter do his work, and you did, even though you really wanted to play with him. You did good, and that makes you a good boy.”

Billy didn’t look like he believed her, not even when Wanda brought ice cream, not even when they let Billy choose a movie to watch, not even when they all sat down to watch it. May glanced over, looking at the boy curled into Peter’s side as 101 Dalmatians played. She thought back to him being in care, being not much more than a toddler, with powers that he couldn’t explain. His nerves around new people, the way his excitement could be taken so quickly, the way he immediately started acting when he accidentally used his powers. Had he been punished for them? That thought alone made her blood boil.

 

May had not long left. Peter was sad to see her go, but happy when she said she’d call the school. He hadn’t been looking forward to the idea of leaving Billy on his own for an entire day. He’d been down ever since the incident with the Play-Doh and it seemed like nothing could calm him down properly. He seemed to be waiting for a response from anyone who interacted with him. Peter was at a loss. He’d reacted similarly yesterday when he accidentally cleared up his dinner mess, though by the morning he seemed to have forgotten about it. Peter could only hope that this would still be the case. Peter watched as Billy drew. He didn’t seem to be drawing anything in particular, rather just moving the pen around the page, filling it up with slow squiggles.

“How is he?” a low voice asked next to him.

He jumped. He hadn’t been expecting Dr Strange to show up today.

“Not so good” Peter answered, once he’d recovered.

“I thought I asked you to keep him safe” Strange said, his tone sharp.

“And he is” Peter said, Strange raising an eyebrow in disbelief, “it’s just…”

Peter explained what had happened: the monsters, the meatball, the clay figure. Strange nodded as he finished.

“I was worried something like this might happen.”

“You were?”

“Occasionally I’d sense new presences in the Sanctum when Billy was dreaming, but they never lasted long, and they never did anything apart from stand in his room.”

Peter watched Billy with Strange.

“Please tell me you have some good news.”

“I might do. I’m not sure yet, so don’t get your hopes too high, but I think I’ve at least narrowed down what type of spell this was.”

“And that’s good?” Peter asked.

He could never be quite sure with magic.

“If I’m right, then very.”

Strange nodded to Billy, bringing Peter’s attention back to the boy. His head was nodding. He looked exhausted. Peter nudged him slightly.

“I think it’s time to go to bed” he said.

“With you?” Billy asked hopefully.

Peter shook his head. Tonight, Peter was determined that Billy would sleep in his own room. Billy started crying.

“He wants to sleep with you?” Strange asked, only slightly suspiciously.

“He gets scared when he’s alone” he explained, “no Billy, you’ll be fine in your room,” he soothed.

Billy hugged him tightly. Peter rubbed his back, resolute that he wouldn’t give in.

“Billy, I’ve got something for you.”

Strange knelt down beside the pair of them, Billy eyeing him through his tears. Strange squeezed his hands together. There was a brief orange glow and when opened his hands out to show them, there was a small, pale purple gemstone sat in his palm.

“This is a magic stone. It keeps away monsters and lets whoever gives it a squeeze be brave. Here, take it.”

Billy hesitated, but did take the stone. He gave it a squeeze and it glowed very softly. He looked between Peter and Strange, a slowly widening smile appearing on his face. Peter took this as his cue, leading Billy to his room. Billy didn’t complain about being changed into his new pajamas, nor about being tucked into his own bed and not Peters. The stone was on his bedside table, still glowing softly. Billy hugged Peter before lying back down, holding his owl. His eyes closed and Peter switched off the light. Though the stone was not bright, it seemed to lighten up the room just enough to see. It was like a magical night light. He shut the door on the sleeping child. Strange was still with him.

“Thank you for that.”

“No problem.”

“So magic can make people brave?”

“Some magic can, but not that.”

Peter was confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Billy made those monsters because he believed they were real. He’s already seen me use magic, so when I tell him that the stone will make him be brave, he’ll believe it. Simple psychology.”

That made sense.

“Thank you, again.”

Strange cracked a smile, before leaving for the Sanctum. His portal closed and Peter made his way to his own room. He hoped the trick would work, Billy deserved to be safe. And work it did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay between chapters. I haven't been working on this as much this last week as I had for the previous chapters.
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
> 
> I think I may need to update the tags for the next chapter, as ... things ... happen, but I don't know if it warrants adding a warning to it. I'm not sure as I've never needed to worry before.


	5. Day 4: The Woman

When Peter woke up the next morning with no one else in his bed, he did have to admit to being worried. Had something happened during the night? Why hadn’t Billy come into his room? The worry was quickly replaced with joy. Billy was only just waking up when he went to check on him. The boy had a brief moment of panic when he saw that he was still in his room, that Peter hadn’t been there, but Peter quickly calmed him down, praising him for being brave for spending the night on his own.

“I’m brave?” Billy asked.

“Of course you are” Peter responded, giving him a tight hug.

They found Wanda and Vision in the kitchen with Steve, who was making breakfast. Wanda scooped Billy into a hug as well, which he returned. Billy sat at a stool, quietly playing with his owl, while Peter spoke with Wanda.

“So he didn’t come into your room?”

“Nope, he was barely awake when I checked in.”

“Maybe he’s getting comfortable enough that he doesn’t need to. Maybe he’s realising that he’s safe” Vision offered.

Wanda considered for a moment.

“Possibly, I guess we’ll see how today goes.”

A plate of pancakes was set down in front of him. He thanked Steve, checking to see if Billy had food. He did, and as always he was waiting for Peter to start before he did. The clock read 8:13am. He mused; he should have been at school. May said she’d call them, but what excuse she’d give, he had no idea. Probably that he was ill, or maybe she came up with something less cliché and a bit more believable. She could say he was away with his internship, some kind of last minute thing. Tony would have supported that story. He’d have to find out before he went back so his story would be straight. Billy was trying to squeeze the bottle of syrup but he was struggling. Peter watched him keep trying, not giving up. He reached over.

“3, 2, 1, squeeze.”

He squeezed the bottom of the bottle while Billy squeezed the top. The syrup came out, drizzling over the pancakes. When Peter decided that he’d had enough, he stopped and the syrup stopped pouring.

“Thank you” Billy said, setting the bottle down again.

Peter tried not to catch Steve’s eye, but he could tell he was smirking at him. Breakfast was over, with Wanda and Vision clearing up. Billy joined Peter in the living room. He sat down to draw, but got up after a few minutes to play with the clay figures, only to sit back and do nothing. He kept glancing at Peter, but Peter was at a loss. He tried playing with him, but Billy just wouldn’t settle.

“What’s wrong?”

He tried not to sound desperate, but Billy wasn’t saying anything. When he stopped drawing for the third time, Peter pulled him to one side.

“Do you want to play with your other toys?”

Maybe he was bored, and he wasn’t saying anything because that’s who Billy was. His aunt had told him what Tony had found out, making Billy’s behaviour over the last few days make more sense. Billy didn’t say anything, just nodded slightly, so Peter took him back to his room. There were a number of toys: other stuffed animals, several small cars and a ball. Billy hadn’t asked for much, but he had gotten some books as well when Wanda had pushed him. Billy grabbed the cars, setting them down and pushing them across the floor. He watched them roll away, Peter rolled them back. Billy didn’t take them, instead picking up a stuffed lion and playing with that. Peter was getting frustrated. Why was he not settling to do one thing? Peter grabbed the cars and led Billy, who still had the stuffed lion, back to the lounge. He looked in the kitchen, hoping somebody else was there so he could ask. He’d hoped that Billy would stay in the lounge, but the soft patter of feet behind him told him that Billy had followed him. Steve was there, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Peter” Steve greeted him.

“Hey Steve, could I ask you something?”

Steve paused, unsure where this was going.

“Sure” he said carefully.

“It’s Billy” Peter said, Steve relaxing somewhat, “he doesn’t seem to want to do anything. He keeps starting something and then stopping and moving on the next.”

They both looked, Billy had crawled under the dining table and was watching them, giving them his full attention. Peter would have to be careful with his words.

“I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Steve chuckled a bit. Peter thought he was making fun of him, but Steve smiled warmly.

“Relax Peter” he said, not at all mockingly, “it reminds me of one of Bucky’s sisters, way back when. He’s been cooped up for the past few days, seeing nothing but the same walls, the same rooms. He’s probably just going a bit stir crazy.”

“So what should I do?”

Steve considered for a moment.

“You could take him outside” he suggested.

Billy crawled to the edge of the table, watching the two. Peter thought about this. He could take him outside, but where? It’s not as if the compound was built with kids in mind, there weren’t any parks or anything. If they wanted to do that, they’d have to go into the city. Peter had no way of getting there, and he didn’t want to have to worry about Billy being surrounded by unfamiliar people. He looked out of the window, at the large open field in front of the compound. No-one was around; he could go out there and play without any awkward questions. They even had a ball. Peter had to admit, he wanted to get outside as well. Steve left as he was making up his mind. Billy crawled out from under the table, waiting for Peter to say something.

“Are you getting a bit bored? Peter asked him, crouching down to his level.

Shyly, like he didn’t want to admit it, Billy nodded.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t want you to get mad” Billy answered, very quietly.

“I wouldn’t get mad, not for that” Peter reassured him, ruffling his hair.

Peter got the ball from Billy’s room and led the boy outside. Billy happily walked alongside him, only sticking closer when passing people, which was thankfully rare as Peter nearly tripped over him every time he did so. The field was empty when they got there. Billy was smiling, happy to be out of the building. He still had a hold of Peter’s hand, not wanting to let go just yet. Peter throw the ball a ways in front of them.

“I bet you I can get it before you can” he challenged, running to get the ball.

Billy made a noise, running as fast as he could, overtaking Peter and scooping up the ball.

“You got it!”

“I win!” Billy said.

Billy threw the ball again and ran after it, Peter chasing after him. He got the ball again, but Peter scooped both ball and boy in his arms.

“I got it again.”

“No, I got it.”

“But I’ve got the ball” Billy said, looking at the ball with confusion.

“But I’ve got you, who’s got the ball, so I’ve got the ball” Peter teased.

“No” Billy said, wriggling out of Peter’s grip, giggling as he did so.

“Can you throw the ball to me?”

Billy did so.

“Can you catch it?”

Billy looked unsure.

“I don’t know.”

“Let’s find out then.”

Peter threw it gently. It arced slowly. Billy almost caught it, but he fumbled it and it fell.

“Oh no.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll try again” Peter reassured, throwing the ball again.

This time Billy caught it. Happy, he threw it back to Peter. They continued like this for a while, throwing the ball between them until Billy wouldn’t throw it back so Peter would have to chase him. Billy was happy, laughing loudly. Eventually, Peter got the ball, and Billy had to chase him.

“You can’t catch me” Peter teased.

“Yes I can” Billy said determinedly.

And Peter let him, though he didn’t make it easy.

“No, you got me” Peter said, falling to the ground as though beaten.

Billy jumped on top of him, so of course Peter had to tickle him to get him off, not stopping until the boy was a giggling heap next to him. The ball had rolled a little way away. He checked his watch. It was getting towards lunch time.

“We have to go back inside soon” Peter said.

“Do we have to?” Billy asked, whining a little.

“Yes we do, it’s nearly time for lunch.”

Billy rolled over to pluck at some grass as Peter stood up.

“Go get the ball.”

Billy did so running, hoping that Peter would chase him and the game would continue. Peter thought everything had gone well, but as is often the case when that thought occurs, something went wrong. Billy tripped, crying out as he would have fallen flat on his face. Except he didn’t land, and a chill ran down Peter’s spine. Danger. Billy’s body was cloaked in a dull blue glow and he was floating a foot above the ground. He flailed his arms, trying to grab onto something, but there was nothing within reach. Peter recognised it. It was the same magic he used to fly. He must have accidentally used it when he tripped. Billy started to panic, rising higher and higher above the ground.

“What’s happening!” he cried.

Five year old Billy must never have figured out how to fly, Peter thought, as he rushed to get a hold on him. Billy must have been about six foot from the ground. Peter reached up, Billy reached down, but Billy’s motion somehow pushed him further up, too high for Peter to reach. He needed help, but there was no-one around. He could call out, but he didn’t know if anyone would hear him. If only he had his web shooters.

“Peter!” Billy cried.

Peter looked up, seeing the scared look in the boy’s eyes.

“Billy, everything’s going to be fine.”

“I don’t know what’s going on!”

Peter scratched his head. How was he going to do this? Thankfully, Billy had stopped going up, but he was still too high for him to grab. He could jump, but even if he did manage to get a hold of him, there was no guarantee that he’d be able to bring the boy down. He needed to calm him down.

“It’s alright Billy. This is just your powers again, like the meatball” he reassured.

Billy cried.

“But I’m not supposed to use them!”

“Do you not remember last night, when you used them then? I said it’s ok if you use them, especially if it happens by accident, like now.”

“Please, I want to come down now!”

Peter tried to supress the panic.

“I know, but I can’t get you.”

They were the wrong words; he knew that as soon as he said them.

“But you can get yourself down!” he quickly added.

“I can’t!”

Billy was crying. Peter felt a few tear drops land on him.

“You just don’t know how, but I can help you.”

Could he? Peter thought back to whenever teenage Billy had used his powers before. Sometimes he just used them, but other times, other times he seemed to chant what he wanted to happen and then whatever it was happened. How had he described it?

“ _It’s like if I focus on something hard enough, I can make it real. Saying it out loud helps._ ”

How do you explain that to a five year old?

“Billy, listen to me. I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to really concentrate on your answer, ok?”

Billy sobbed a little, but nodded all the same.

“Billy, what do you want to do?”

“I want to come down” he cried.

No change.

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to come down!” he cried again, getting more upset.

Again, no change.

“Please Billy, I know it’s scary. Concentrate. What do you want to do?”

Billy took a deep breath, trying to control his sobs as best he could.

“ **I want to come down.** ”

Slowly, he started to descend.

“That’s it Billy, you’re doing it” he praised.

Once Billy was within reach, Peter took hold, pulling him into a tight hug. The glow faded as Billy held on.

“I don’t want to do that again, please” he sobbed into Peter’s shoulder.

“I know.”

Peter thought long and hard, eventually deciding that this would stop right here and now. Every time Billy used his powers, it scared him. He would shut down, terrified about what would happen, no matter what people said to reassure him. No more.

“I’m sorry” Billy sobbed.

Peter knelt down, standing Billy in front of him so the boy was focussed on him entirely.

“What did I say last night? Tell me.”

“You said … I shouldn’t be … afraid of what I can do.”

“That’s right, and I meant it. Having powers, it’s a responsibility, yes. But it’s also a gift.”

“But you don’t make bad things happen without meaning to.”

“No, but how do you think I can carry you? I’m only fifteen. My powers give me strength, so I can pick you up. And I had to learn how to control my strength; otherwise I might accidentally crush you, or rip a door off when I try to open it.”

Billy was listening intently, his sobbing stopped.

“So I’ll help you, as best as I can. I promise I won’t be mad if you accidentally use your powers, if you promise that you won’t be scared when it happens.”

“You promise?” Billy asked.

“I promise.”

Billy hugged him, tightly.

“I’ll try. It’ll try to be brave Peter” he said.

Peter rubbed his back soothingly.

“I know you will.”

When Billy broke the hug, eventually, Peter had an idea.

“Try this” he said.

He took one of Billy’s hands and guided it to the ground.

“I think Wanda would like some flowers, don’t you?”

Billy looked confused.

“You’re going to make her some.”

Worry flashed across Billy’s face, but it was quickly replaced by quiet determination.

“I want you to focus hard on flowers. Think about them as much as you can.”

He’d seen Billy do this before, admitted not with flowers, but surely the principle would be the same. He didn’t know the ins and outs of how Billy’s magic worked entirely, but he could guess from what he’d said in the past. Billy closed his eyes, clearly trying hard. Nothing happened, but he didn’t stop. Peter didn’t know what to say to help. Maybe he’d bitten off more than he could chew when he said he’d help. A small crackling sound drew Peter’s attention. A soft blue glow wrapped around Billy’s fingers. It flowed like a liquid into the grass, which started to grow. Billy gasped in surprise when he saw it. The grass grew for a few more seconds after Billy removed his hand. From the centre of the patch, a single flower shot up. It stood tall against the surrounding grass. Peter thought it might have been a rose, but it didn’t have thorns. Its petals were a deep crimson, fading into a dark purple close to the stem. What exactly Billy had been focussing on, Peter was tempted to ask, but the smile that was slowly creeping onto the boy’s face stopped him.

“I did that.”

“Yes you did” Peter said, pulling Billy into a one armed hug.

He seemed happy, even though he’d only made one flower. He wasn’t scared like he had been before, which Peter was happy about, but there was still something he needed to say.

“Remember how I said I had to control my strength.”

Billy nodded.

“It’s not just about when to use it, it’s also about when not to. We can’t just go around using our gifts whenever we feel like.”  
“I know” Billy said.

Peter was surprised. Was that some of teenage Billy bleeding through?

“That’s what Jamie said.”

There was that name again. Peter really wanted to ask who he was, but he didn’t know how well Billy would be able to answer. Maybe Tony had something. Jamie could have been someone from a home Billy lived in. He checked his watch, definitely time to go back in for lunch. He looked around for the ball, the incident with Billy’s powers causing him to forget where it had gone. He found it, but looked beyond it and saw Steve and Bucky, no doubt having just finished a run. Peter pointed them out to Billy.

“I think they need to be chased, don’t you.”

Billy grinned and nodded, as he got up and ran towards the two. They didn’t see him until he was close.

“I’m going to get you!” he yelled.

Steve played along, running away, pretending to be scared of the boy. Bucky laughed at his friend, not joining in. Peter joined him, ball and flower in hand. They watched as Billy caught up to Steve, who turned and scooped him up, sitting him on his shoulders.

“You got me.”

Together, they went back inside, with no complaints from Billy.

“Can I come down now?” he asked as they got closer to the living area.

Steve obliged, putting him down on the floor again. He took the flower from Peter as well as his now free hand, pulling him into the lounge. Wanda was there talking with Tony. Billy rushed up to her, a huge smile on his face, and presented the flower to her.

“I made this for you.”

Wanda seemed surprised at the red and purple flower, but saw how happy Billy was and took it.

“Thank you very much.”

She hugged him. In comparison to some meals they’d had, lunch was a fairly quiet affair. Vision had made soup, under Wanda’s watchful eye, and they all enjoyed it. Tony and Wanda looked as though they really wanted to ask Peter something, but they didn’t. Peter thought it was a little bit annoying, why didn’t they just say whatever it was, but he guessed it probably had something to do with Billy. After lunch, Billy surprised Peter. He ran off to his room on his own. Peter didn’t have much time to process that when Billy came back, clutching a book. He shuffled up to Peter, as though he realised that he would actually have to ask for what he wanted.

“Can you … could you please …” he stammered, holding out the book.

“Sure” Peter said.

He sat on one of the couches, Billy settling next to him. The book was The Three Billy Goats Gruff. He chuckled, remembering his own parents reading this story to him when he was about Billy’s age. But Billy was a teenager, a teenage five year old; he tried wrapping his head around the thought when Billy softly nudged him, breaking him out of his reverie. He opened the book, seeing the large illustrations. He began to read:

_In a field near a large river, lived three brother goats whose name was Gruff. There was the big brother goat, the middle brother goat and the little brother goat._

As he read, Billy held his hands out to the book, making Peter stop. Billy seemed to want something, but he was hesitating. He looked up at Peter, as though looking for confirmation, but Peter didn’t know what to give. He reached out again to the book. Peter felt a chill run down his spine as Billy’s hands started to glow a soft blue. A fine mist shimmered on the page, flowing out into the air in front of both of them. It twisted and deformed, until the image on the page had appeared before them. It reminded Peter of Tony’s holograms. Billy nudged Peter again, asking him to keep reading. So he did, but as he did so, the pictures moved. They followed what he said as he said it, and Peter realised what he’d done. He’d animated the pictures like he’d animated the clay. He kept reading:

_The goats needed to move to the field over the river. But the only way across was a rickety old bridge._

A bridge appeared.

_Underneath the bridge lived a hideous troll._

The troll appeared. It was laughing maniacally to itself, as though Billy felt it needed to show off how evil it was. He continued to read from the book, watching as the smallest goat tried crossing the bridge, but Peter fumbled his words. He said that goat screamed when he saw the troll, which the goat did, only to realise that the book only said he yelped. So Peter corrected himself, and saw the goat let out a yelp. So the images were following what Peter was saying, not what was in the book. Peter mused; he could have some fun with this. The smallest goat crossed the bridge, jumping with joy as Peter told it to. He continued reading, seeing Billy’s eyes droop as he went on, clearly tired from the morning. Finally, the big brother goat tried crossing.

_I’m going to eat you, said the troll. But the big brother goat didn’t run. No you won’t, I’ll use my magic goat powers. He reared onto his hind legs. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, the big brother goat shone like the sun._

The image looked impressive, but before Peter could have the goat use his totally not made up on the spot magic powers, the image faded, like it had never been there at all. He was about to comment until he heard the deep breathing and felt the heavy weight leaning on him. He glanced down at Billy, who had fallen asleep. He bit back his disappointment. He felt as though he was being watched and turned, carefully so as not to wake Billy up. Wanda, Tony and Steve were watching him. Tony had a devilish grin on his face as Wanda handed Peter a blanket. Between the two of them, they extracted Peter from Billy and settled him more comfortably to sleep on the couch. They all went into the kitchen, where they could talk more freely.

“FRIDAY, please send me the footage of Daddy Peter reading his son a story” Tony teased.

“Oh god, please don’t show anyone that” Peter said, embarrassed.

“I won’t, only Pepper and Happy and May and…” he listed.

“You wouldn’t” Peter said.

Tony flashed him a look to say he totally would, but then smiled warmly.

“Relax kid, I’m kidding.”

Peter did relax slightly, more so when Tony patted his shoulder as they sat side by side.

“But seriously though Peter, you are good with him.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time.”

“That’s parenthood in a nutshell” Tony remarked.

“Since when were you a parenting expert?” Steve asked.

“I’ve seen many a parent with child” Tony replied, facing the looks of the other three, “ok, point taken.”

“He was using his powers” Wanda pointed out, sounding slightly concerned, “and he wasn’t freaking out about them.”

Peter told them what happened on the field.

“I just thought that if he has these powers, he should know how to use them so he won’t be so scared, because who knows what he might do otherwise” he finished, feeling like he had been confessing to a crime and needed to justify himself.

The others took a moment to take in what he’d said. Peter waited with baited breath, fully expecting the ‘how could you be so foolish’ talk. But it never came. Tony and Wanda nodded approvingly and Steve said “good idea.”

“Whatever you said to him must have worked” Wanda said.

They continued talking for a while, Steve making coffee for them all, except Peter. Peter was content, until he felt a chill run down his spine. Danger. What, why had his senses gone off? He looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was no Clint or Scott trying to prank him, so what was going on?

“NO!”

The cry came from the lounge. All four Avengers froze and as one rushed out of the room. They burst in, expecting to see something horrendous they’d have to fight, but there wasn’t. All there was was a woman. She was tall and thin, her greying hair pulled into a tight bun. Her clothes were sharp and rigidly formal. Her beady eyes were fixed on Billy, who was on the ground backing slowly away from her.

“They left you here with no supervision! I can’t believe how irresponsible they are, leaving a monster like you on your own!”

The woman’s voice was low and filled with menace. She had Wanda’s flower in her hand.

“I’m not…” Billy sobbed.

“You are! You always were and always will be. No wonder no-one wants to take you in. You’re a danger to everyone around you!”

“Please Mrs Monty” Billy begged.

“That’s Mrs Montgomery to you, freak. I can’t believe the stuff they’ve let you get away with. Letting you use your … your… abnormality!”

“But it’s ok. I make good things” he sobbed, “I’m brave.”

“Good things? You’ve never done anything good in your life! The only brave people here are the ones who have to deal with you.”

Tears were running freely down Billy’s face. The shock of the situation had worn off and Peter darted forward, putting himself between Billy and the woman.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?” he yelled.

Anger was pulsing through his body. His fists clenched and he had to restrain himself, but it was quite a struggle. How dare she say those things?

“You!” the woman rounded on Peter, “you’re the one who’s given him far too much freedom, filling his head with the delusion that he could ever be anything but a monster!”

Wanda was trying to comfort Billy, trying to take him away but the boy was inconsolable.

“I’m sorry. Please don’t, I’m sorry!” he sobbed, rocking on his knees, head in his hands.

“Don’t give me any of that!" the woman almost yelled at Billy.

“Leave him alone!” Peter yelled back.

“Your concern is childish. He doesn’t deserve your sympathy, he doesn’t deserve anything!”

Peter must have started forward because he felt someone grab his arm. It was firm, but not too strong, so it must have been Tony.

“We have a security breach in the third floor living area. Send back up” he heard Steve command.

“You’re going to lock me up, when you have freaks like him and a violent teenager right here?” the woman said, almost incredulously.

“Please stop…” Billy sobbed.

“I’m not the one you need to lock up…”

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s you…” jabbing a finger at Peter.

“Stop please!”

“… and him!” jabbing a finger at Billy.

“ **STOP IT!”**

Peter barely felt the chills. Billy’s eyes burned a fierce blue colour. Energy arced from him, filling the room. Peter didn’t feel himself fall to the floor. Before he blacked out, he saw nothing but blinding blue light.

 

“Peter. Peter!”

He woke with a start and a pain in his head. Tony was kneeling beside him, worry written across his face. He looked like Peter felt, drained and dizzy. Slowly, Peter sat up. He could see Bucky helping Steve to his feet and Vision waking up Wanda. There were other armed guards in the room but other than that, nothing seemed out of place. Whatever Billy had done, it hadn’t done any damage.

“What happened?” Peter asked groggily.

“Not sure” Bucky said, “I got the call that you needed back up. There was this bright light, but when I got here you were all out cold.”

“Prepare a room for interrogation, we need to get some answers” Steve said.

Some answers. Yes, Peter thought, some answers were needed.

“Do you see it now?”

The voice brought back all of the anger from before. He twisted around so he could see her properly. The woman was sat on a couch. Her hands were behind her back, Peter guessed she was handcuffed. She, like Tony, looked drained and dizzy, though her eyes were fixed on Peter.

“Do you see now what he really is? A monster!” she spat.

“Get her out of here!” Steve ordered.

The woman was led away. Peter stood shakily. She was wrong about Billy, he wasn’t a monster. Billy! Peter whipped around, looking frantically for the boy. He would have fallen but Bucky caught him and helped him up again.

“Peter?” he asked.

“Where’s Billy?” Peter responded.

Everyone in the room looked around.

“He wasn’t here when I arrived” Bucky said.

“He couldn’t have gone far” Tony said.

He wasn’t where he was before the flash. Panic was rising in Peter’s chest.

“FRIDAY, where is Billy?” he asked desperately.

There was silence from the AI.

“FRIDAY?”

“I’m sorry. Something happened to my systems. I don’t know where he is.”

Panic had definitely set in now as Peter ran his fingers through his hair, trying to keep his breathing level. Where was he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me if I need to adjust the tags with what happens in this chapter. I don't know if it warrants it, or what tag it would come under.
> 
> As always, any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> There will be a delay before I can upload the next chapter as this week/weekend is quite a busy time.


	6. Day 4: The Hero

Was the pounding in his head the vibration from his frantic running, or his heart hammering in his chest? Peter wasn’t entirely sure. He flew down the halls to Billy’s room. Wrenching open the door, he took in the empty room. It was exactly as he had left it earlier. The toys Billy had abandoned playing with were still scattered about the floor. He checked under the bed, under the covers, in the wardrobe, anywhere he could think of that Billy might be able to hide in here.

“Billy!” he called.

No response. It was definitely his heart he could feel. Where was he? He strained his ears, hoping to hear something. A sob, a cry, anything, but there was nothing. Punching the wall did nothing to ease the growing panic he felt. What had happened? That woman, whoever she was, had goaded Billy, said all kinds of horrible things to him. Billy had wanted it to stop, and it had. He’d knocked them all out and then ran. He must have done. But where? FRIDAY had been knocked out at the same time as them so her help was limited, even as she scrubbed through every camera she had available to her. A horrible thought crossed his mind. What if Billy had teleported away? He pushed it to one side. They needed to finish checking the compound first, then he could worry about that. Back in the lounge, the others hadn’t had much luck. Tony was coordinating people. Three tablets of communication panels, security screens and pages of information lay before him and Tony navigated them all, the pinnacle of multitasking. He looked up as Peter entered.

“No luck?”

“He’s not in his room” Peter said, the panic barely concealed.

Tony gave him a one armed hug. The squeeze was reassuring, not that Peter felt it.

“We’ll find him. I’ve got every available security personnel, every available Avenger, every available anybody on site looking for him. He can’t have gotten far.”

Peter wanted to yell. He wanted to scream that that wasn’t enough, but he knew that it would do no good. Tony would think he was crazy, that he was being childish when he needed to be strong. He didn’t understand, he hadn’t spent the last few days looking after him, trying to calm him down when he was scared. Was this what being a parent was like? Maybe it was. Tony had said he was good with Billy. May had said something similar before she left. But surely feeling this much like a parent didn’t happen in only a few days. Then again, it hadn’t _just_ been a few days. It had been the friendship they’d had before the incident. It had been the responsibility he’d felt to his friend when he was vulnerable and needed help. It had been the sadness at finding out about Billy’s childhood that made him want to ease at least some of those hardships. Maybe a parenting instinct could develop in only a few days, at least enough for him to be close to freaking out about losing him.

“Peter, you need to breathe.”

Tony shook his arm slightly, snapping Peter out of it. He took several slow, deep breaths. He couldn’t do anything to help Billy if he lost control. Vision floated through the wall opposite them. His face was grave.

“I have been unsuccessful in my search.”

Tony slammed his headset down in frustration.

“Teams are reporting back the same thing.”

Peter played with his hands, racking his brains for anything useful. The search teams had found nothing, but they were strangers and Billy didn’t like strangers. He could easily have been avoiding them purposefully. FRIDAY hadn’t seen him on the cameras, but he could have been invisible or managed to somehow stay out of the camera’s view. They needed some way to search the entire compound that he wouldn’t be able to avoid easily, some way that would get into all of the hiding places, some way that could distinguish him from everyone else on site. Something like…

“Wanda!”

“What about Wanda?” Vision asked, looking confused.

“She’s telepathic right? She could, I don’t know, reach out and find him” Peter said.

“Like she did in Sokovia to get people to evacuate” Tony joined in, catching on to Peter’s thought.

“It could work, though she is currently occupied.”

“With what?”

“Captain Rogers required her assistance interrogating our guest.”

 

“This is all your fault! Everything that’s happened here, all of it, it’s all because you let that monster have his way!”

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. He and Bucky had been trying to talk to this woman, to find out how she got in and why she seemed so hostile to Billy, but they had gotten nowhere. They had tried calm and respectful, hostile and aggressive, even made threats but to no avail.

“Enough! Tell us how you got in!” he demanded.

“You’re lucky that I did. You left him alone! Who knows what he could have done!”

“What is your problem with Billy?” Bucky asked, fixing her with a piercing glare.

She shot back with a glare of her own.

“He’s a monster, a freak, somebody who would use any opportunity they had to terrorise people with his abnormality! I would have thought all that was obvious. You’re lucky he hasn’t killed someone.”

This was getting ridiculous. No matter what they asked, she didn’t answer. Instead, she would launch into another tirade with the same theme. They left the room, leaving the woman to yell from the chair she was cuffed too. Steve stretched. They needed answers from her and he wouldn’t be able to get them if he let her get under his skin.

“What’re we going to do Steve? She’s not talking.”

“We can’t give up. She got into the compound to get to Billy and we need to find out why.”

“But if she won’t tell us, how will we find out?”

Steve hadn’t wanted it to come to this. He considered it an invasion of privacy, something far too easily exploited if used at every available opportunity, but he couldn’t think of what else they could do. He got on the comms.

“Wanda, get down here.”

“I can’t, Billy’s still missing” Wanda replied.

“We need information from this woman and she isn’t being very forthcoming. Anything she says could be useful for finding Billy, so we need it now. That’s an order.”

He hadn’t wanted to be as authoritative, but he needed to know. Five minutes later, Wanda appeared, looking distinctly unhappy with being called away from the search.

“I know Wanda, we’re worried too. But the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can all search for Billy.”

She said nothing. Steve led her back into the room with the woman. It would be the standard tactic they’d agreed upon whenever Wanda had to ‘assist’ in an interrogation. Wanda hung back as Steve took his seat across from the woman. She glared at Wanda who glared back. Both women shot venom at each other.

“You tried reasoning with the monster. He doesn’t deserve any of your sympathy. He’ll just take it and run with it and the next thing you know, he’s hurting people!”

The flash of red Steve saw in Wanda’s eyes seemed brighter than usual. The woman recoiled as though overcome with a wave of nausea.

“You’re going to tell us what we need to know. Why did you come here? What are your intentions with the boy?” he demanded.

The woman laughed, a chilling laugh filled with loathing.

“Captain America, hero of the people, defending a freak that’s done nothing but cause trouble. If you knew what he had done, he’d be the one sitting here in handcuffs. Not me!”

Steve said nothing, hoping Wanda was close to loosening her tongue. Something must have registered on his face, because the woman laughed again.

“You don’t know, do you? Did you think what happened to the Kaplans was natural? That their car just happened to crash on its own? No, no. Those officers never had to deal with that monster, never knew what he was capable of. They didn’t put two and two together, but I did. And the worst part of all of it, they let him keep their name. Disgusting!”

She recoiled again. Steve looked over to Wanda, whose eyes were definitely brighter than they should be. She beckoned him to follow her and they left the room. She seemed to be struggling to keep it together.

“Wanda? What happened in there?”

“I couldn’t take it anymore. She’s just pure anger.”

“I know, but we need the information.”

“No, I mean she is literally pure anger.”

Steve cocked his eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there is nothing else to her. The only thing in her head is hatred and anger, all directed at Billy.”

“Surely there must be something else.”

Steve couldn’t quite wrap his head around what Wanda was telling him.

“Believe me, I looked, but there isn’t anything. No childhood, no happy memories, not even what she had for breakfast this morning. The only thoughts she has are about Billy, and none of them are good.”

“But how is that possible?”

Wanda’s eyes widened, like she had suddenly realised something.

“Billy.”

“What about him?”

“He was sleeping. He must have had a nightmare about her and she then became real.”

Steve didn’t get it.

“Think about it. She has no personality beyond hating Billy. She appeared in the compound out of nowhere. All she’s done since she’s been here is yell about how much of a monster Billy is, and Billy seemed terrified of her. It wouldn’t be the first time his nightmares became real.”

Steve considered for a moment.

“But you had to kill the other nightmares.”

They both looked back at the room. Steve may not have telepathy, but he was pretty sure that Wanda was thinking the same thing. A nightmare made real she may be, but they couldn’t kill her. She was a person, unlike the monsters from before. But they couldn’t keep here. Either she had to go, or Billy did. Where would they take her? She hadn’t committed a crime, so she couldn’t go to prison. She had no personality beyond hating a child so she couldn’t be in public. Steve could see Wanda getting anxious, obviously wanting to re-join the search.

“Wanda, when you have a moment, could you come to the lounge please” Tony’s voice spoke from the com unit.

Wanda looked to Steve. He nodded and she left without a backwards glance.

 

Peter paced. Thoughts and feelings bounced around his head, rattling around like a bag of marbles. Tony had been scrubbing through everything he’d unearthed about Billy’s childhood, hoping there would be a clue in there about how the child Billy would react. He said nothing, which only made Peter’s current anxiety worse. Vision rose up through the floor as Wanda entered the room. She looked worried and angry. Peter understood the former, and he could confidently guess as to the latter.

“How did the interrogation go?” Tony asked, not looking up from the tablets in front of him.

“The woman is a nightmare. There’s nothing to get from her.”

“A terrible person nightmare, or like a nightmare nightmare?” Peter asked, his light tone incredibly shaky.

“An actual nightmare. What did you need?”

Peter hesitated. Would Wanda be willing to do this? He hadn’t considered whether her own ethics would stop her, but regardless, he had to ask.

“Can you use your powers to try and find him?” he asked her.

Wanda hadn’t expected that question. She looked sheepish, not wanting to meet his eyes.

“Peter, I can’t.”

“But Wanda…”

“It’s not that I physically can’t. It’s just … the last time I did something like that, I was telling people to leave their homes, to run and hide somewhere else. Then Ultron started attacking the city. I was still connected to those people, and I felt all of their fear all at once. It hurt, I almost couldn’t keep going, I wouldn’t have kept going if Clint hadn’t talked me around.”

“But this isn’t like back then.”

“I know it isn’t.”

She was resolutely avoiding looking him in the eye. Part of Peter, the rational part, could fully understand her reluctance to reach out to that many minds after going through something like that. Of course the experience would bring back unpleasant memories. But another part, the more emotional part, the part that was slowly turning into a wild animal with worry, wanted to pick her up and scream at her. Why was she saying no? Did she not care? How could she be so heartless?

“Gotcha!”

Tony distracted them both. He was pointing to a picture on one of the tablets. Peter took one look and felt his blood boil. It was that woman again. It seemed like an official photograph, maybe for an ID.

“Ava Montgomery, former care worker.”

“That woman was a care worker!” Peter said incredulously.

Didn’t care workers have to, you know, care?

“Billy’s old files are signed by an A Montgomery. No pictures, so I dug through the Child Services databases and found this.”

“So she was tasked with looking after Billy as a child?” Vision asked.

“Yep. By the looks of things, she was in charge of Billy’s home from when he was a baby to when he was about six. After that, the home closed. She ended up in the same home that Billy was moved to and she retired a few years later.”

“How does this help us?” Peter asked, frustration rising in his voice.

“Remember how I said that people’s problems usually start with their parents. Admittedly I was wrong in this case, so I’ll amend it to people’s problems usually start with whoever raised them. She obviously wasn’t giving him care, she was berating him, most likely punishing him for his powers, so I thought: if she wasn’t caring then who was? A woman like that isn’t going to let anyone in. If she felt that he didn’t deserve any kind of love, which she obviously does, then she would try and stop it whenever she saw it. And how best to stop it than by raising official suspicions about the relationship between Billy and another housemate.”

He flicked the screen. A page was magnified so they could all see it better.

“Be advised, suspicions have been noted about possible inappropriate behaviour directed at Billy by J. All care workers must pay close attention and limit the time they spend together until formal investigations are completed” Tony read aloud.

Peter didn’t think the heat could rise any higher. He wanted nothing more than to find this Ava Montgomery, the actual, real life version, and beat her senseless.

“That’s horrible” he said.

“Agreed” Vision chimed in.

“Well, we’re hoping she was lying. If her nightmare version is anything to go by, it’s likely not true.”

“Who’s J?” Wanda asked, pointing to the screen.

Peter looked again. There was no elaboration as to who this was, he guessed for confidentiality reasons. Tony said he hadn’t seen any other explanation. Who was J? Obviously, it was someone who was close to Billy, someone from his home, someone who it would have been easy for Ava Montgomery to construe as being inappropriate, which meant there had to be some overt show of affection on J’s part. Like what? Hand holding? Hugs? Kisses? Billy seemed to be a clingy boy with people he felt comfortable with. He certainly made sure to stick to Peter like glue. So who would he have done that with in the home? If he was scared, or distressed, who would he go to…?

“Jamie!”

The realisation struck him like a hammer blow.

“Who?” Wanda asked.

“I don’t know. Billy’s called me that a few times. Jamie must have been someone from the home who cared about him.”

“He must have connected this Jamie person with you, but why?” Tony mused.

“No idea, but I’m guessing that in the home, if Billy needed comfort, he would go to Jamie, which means…”

Peter stopped. Another realisation.

“I’m an idiot!”

He took off running, Wanda and Vision close behind him, confused by his outburst. Peter felt stupid. Why had he not thought to look there? Billy’s room, the kitchen, any number of bathrooms, closets and other hidey holes around the compound they had searched and searched, but not his room. Billy had already spent two nights in there, both times when he was scared, so why wouldn’t he go there? And why had Peter, knowing this, not thought to even check? He almost knocked the door to his room of its hinges. The room didn’t look disturbed. He quickly looked under the bed and found nothing, when he heard a faint sob. Wanda and Vision were also in the room and also heard it. Peter held up a hand, indicating they should stay where they are. They listened. There it was again. It was coming from the closet. Carefully, he opened it. It was a large space, and given that Peter didn’t keep many clothes at the compound, there wasn’t much in it. Two people were sat on the floor in the closet, the large one holding the small one as they sobbed into their shoulder. The smaller one was Billy, but the larger one made Peter do a double take. Billy had proven that he could conjure people with magic, but this was something else. He felt like he was looking at another version of himself. There was the same brown hair, even curling the same way. There was the same body structure. But when the person looked at Peter, he changed his mind. It wasn’t like looking in a mirror, it was like looking at a mirror but everything was slightly off. Those facial features, the ones that everyone told him were quite youthful, were all there, but the face itself was more pointed than Peters. The body was structured the same, but where Peter was skinny, this person was slightly fuller, slightly more well-built. The eyes that were looking at him searchingly were not the same brown, they were lighter, closer to grey than they were to brown. The way he held Billy though, that he shared with Peter. This must be Jamie. Peter knelt beside the two. Jamie rubbed Billy’s back, distracting him from the sobbing.

“Billy, look who’s here.”

The boy turned to face them. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy, tears streaked down his face. He took one look at Peter and turned away with renewed sobs.

“Billy?”

Billy, very slowly, turned back to face Peter.

“Billy, it’s ok. The woman’s gone. She won’t hurt you” Peter said, hoping to reassure the boy.

It didn’t have the intended effect. Billy buried his head in Jamie’s chest.

“No!”

“What do you mean no?” Peter asked.

“No!”

Jamie lifted Billy up so he wasn’t hiding his face. He lifted his chin up so Billy was looking at him properly.

“We want to help you Billy, but you need to let us. What do you mean no?”

Peter recognised the tone. It was the same one he used when he was trying to reassure Billy about his powers.

“No, it’s not ok” the boy choked out.

“Why not?” Peter asked.

“Because … because that’s … just what people … say, but … they don’t … mean … it. They say … they care … but … but … they don’t. You don’t care either … not … not really.”

“And what makes you think these people don’t care about you?” Jamie asked.

“No … no-one does … not really … not for long.”

“But we’re not like most people. We only want what’s best for you” Peter said.

“But you shouldn’t … I make … I make bad things … happen … I’m … I’m a … mon…”

“Don’t you even finish that sentence!” Peter interrupted.

Billy still sobbed, but he stopped talking. He cowered slightly but Jamie nodded for Peter to keep going.

“Don’t even think of calling yourself a monster. The only monster in this building is that … disgusting woman who’s done nothing but lie to you.”

Billy’s sobs slowed but didn’t stop. He looked like he wanted to believe Peter so much, he wanted it so badly, but something was stopping him.

“Come here” he said, holding out his arms for Billy.

Billy hesitated, not wanting to leave Jamie. Jamie hugged him tightly before gently guiding him towards Peter. Peter wrapped him in his arms, felt the tears wetting his shoulder. Billy’s breaths were ragged, trying to compete with the sobs. Peter ran his hand through Billy’s hair, slightly playing with the gentle waves. Jamie reached over and rubbed the boy’s back.

“Then … what … am … I?”

Peter held him tighter. No five year old should have to ask this question. They should be running around, making obscene amounts of noise and just generally be having fun. Their biggest worry should be about whether mum is going to make them try vegetables, or if they can get that extra five minutes before bed time. Bad things had happened in Peter’s childhood. He’d lost his parents when he wasn’t much older than Billy was now, but he was lucky. He had family left to take him in, family left who loved him. While he was happy, Billy was being convinced that he didn’t deserve any kind of decency. And now he was asking what he was, as if there was ever going to be a simple answer to that question. A week ago, Peter would have squirmed away, clammed up, started blabbering any time he tried talking from the heart. He’d shown himself that he could do this kind of thing when it was needed, not as Spiderman but as Peter Parker, and Billy needed it now.

“What do you remember of grown up you?”

“I don’t … know.”

“Well, I remember someone who went through a lot of bad things. He didn’t let it change him. When the time came where he had to put aside his own safety to think of the world, he didn’t hesitate. When bad wizards came to try and unleash a demon, he went to help stop it. When a kid with a cool suit decided to go out of his depth, he was there to pull him back and make him think. When that kid needed the push to be Spiderman because of him, and not because of the suit, he was there to give it. When the whole universe was threatened by a crazy guy with a magic glove, he helped his friends to stop him, and when the universe was damaged, he was there to help pick up the pieces.”

Billy listened to him. His breathing eased. The sobs slowly stopped. His eyes, while still wet, no longer ran with tears. Peter looked directly at him, brown eyes meeting brown eyes.

“That someone is you, Billy. That is who you grow up to be. No, that is who you are. You are my friend. You are a hero.”

Billy collapsed into him again, holding on tightly. But this was different than before. Peter felt the boy in his arms relax completely. When he cried, it wasn’t sad like before. It was like all the tension that had built up in him was released. Jamie smiled at the pair. He nodded his approval to Peter before he, like the monsters of Billy’s nightmares, vanished in blue mist. Across the compound, Steve and Bucky were interrupted in their deliberations when the Ava Montgomery nightmare also vanished.

“I guess that’s taken care of then” Bucky commented.

 

To say the atmosphere in the compound was subdued would be putting it mildly. The Avengers made no effort to hide their relief that Billy had been found, though any comments Steve or Bucky wanted to make about running off were silenced before they could even be spoken. Tony would later describe Peter as a mama bear, vigilantly guarding his cub. Peter would disagree, but his argument wasn’t helped by the fact that Billy seemed permanently attached to him. Whether it was hugs or held hands or simply being close to one another, he was always there. Before Peter might have been annoyed by it, but now, now that he’d seen why Billy was like this, who was he to deny him? Peter felt a faint prickle down his spine as he sat on the couch, Billy curled into his side. He heard a crackling behind him, the room being lit slightly, and Peter saw the sparks in a reflection.

“Good news, I think I know how to reverse this” said the deep voice of Dr Strange, “but there’s a problem…”

He saw everybody sitting in the lounge. They had been talking amongst themselves, trying the keep the atmosphere as light as they could, without talking about the obvious thing that all wanted to talk about. Strange took one look around the room, eyes settling on Billy, who curled even further into Peter. Everyone’s demeanour told him something was wrong.

“What happened?”

Nobody was very forthcoming with answers, so Peter began explaining. Strange listened well without interruption. When he talked about the things the woman said, Peter swore the room seemed to get darker as the lines of Strange’s face seemed to tighten.

“Where is she now?” his voice unnaturally level.

“Gone. She was a nightmare like before.”

He continued his explanation and when he finished, the light had come back to the room.

“I take it you had no idea about any of that” Peter said.

Strange shook his head.

“He never said anything and I didn’t want to push too hard.”

He looked at Billy. Was that sadness Peter could see in his eyes? It’s not that Strange was heartless; it’s just that he never really seemed to show his feelings towards a person, unless they were annoying him, in which case he made it abundantly clear.

“You said you could turn him back” Wanda prompted.

Strange was pulled from his thoughts. All of the Avengers were looking at him expectantly.

“Yes, I can.”

“And the problem is?” Vision asked.

“There is a complication. The spell that did this to him is simple enough to reverse, but that isn’t the only magic at play here. The spell should have continued reversing his age until he was just a cluster of cells, not stop at age five. It stopped, because Billy stopped it.”

Peter remembered Billy yelling ‘no more’, remembered the blue light battling with the yellow.

“I saw it in the recording. Billy was in pain and reacted accordingly. He wanted the pain to stop, inadvertently slamming the breaks on the spell that did this but also making it very difficult to undo. Because anything I do will have to compete with Billy’s magic as well as the spell itself.”

Peter thought he could see where Strange was going with this.

“So, in order to reverse the spell, to get Billy back to normal, he has to undo whatever he did before you can do anything?” Peter asked, confident he was right.

“Yes.”

“Surely it’s not going to be that easy” Wanda said in disbelief.

“Indeed it isn’t. The spell he was hit with, once it gets going, acts fast. Billy was lucky to stop it at all. Undoing his magic will mean the spell starts acting again.”

Strange stopped as though considering how best to phrase what he was about to say. He shook his head. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be put delicately.

“If things go wrong, if I don’t or can’t act fast enough, the spell will go too far, and Billy will die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all feedback on this chapter is greatly appreciated.
> 
> I apologise for the time between uploading chapters. I had a weekend camp to run which left little time to get writing done beforehand, and then afterwards I was exhausted. Fun fact, apparently 3 in the morning is when birds think is the perfect time to belt out their songs. Fun times. Hopefully there won't be such a wait for the next chapter.


	7. Day 5: The Family

As Peter lay in bed, the young boy curled up against him, he couldn’t help but reflect over how his life had gone so, well, weird. He’d nearly been blasted by an evil robot, fought Captain America (that was pretty cool), been made an official Avenger (even cooler) and even went to a different planet (definitely the coolest). Now, his friend had been turned into a child and he’d taken care of him to the best of his abilities, and it was all coming to the end. They’d agreed to go through with the reversal the next day. He knew that Strange was busying himself with preparations, but Billy had been tired and needed sleep. Not at all unsurprisingly, he hadn’t wanted to be parted from Peter, so Peter did the only thing he could think of: settled the pair of them down in his own bed. He told himself that this was for Billy’s benefit, but truthfully, it was for him as well. Tomorrow was either going to be the last day with child Billy or the last day with Billy at all. The latter option twisted his stomach every time he even considered it, but regardless, he wanted to spend as much time with his friend as he could. If that meant sharing a bed to keep him calm, then so be it. He should probably sleep too, not that he’d managed to do it. It was very early in the morning, the sun hadn’t risen, but Peter hadn’t gotten more than an hour of sleep. He’d tried, but dreams of yellow light, screams and tears always woke him up. Eventually, he’d given in, opting instead to listen to the relaxed breathing of the boy next to him. Billy didn’t wriggle all that much when he slept, unlike Peter, who knew when he was Billy’s age he’d wake up completely tangled in his bedding. But there was something off. His breathing wasn’t as deep as it usually was when he slept. Sure enough, the boy rolled over and Peter saw that Billy was just as awake as he was.

“I can’t sleep” the boy said quietly.

Peter pulled him into a hug. He knew that Billy needed to sleep, but he honestly had no idea how to get him there. He said nothing, wracking his brain when Billy spoke again.

“You said that we’re friends when I’m big.”

“I did, because it’s true.”

“How?”

“What do you mean?”

“How were we friends? Why would you be friends with someone like me?”

Peter saw where he was going. He wasn’t sad or upset like he was before, but obviously Ava Montgomery’s words were still in his head. He wanted to know how anyone could be friends with him, even though he had powers like he had.

“It’s a weird story.”

Billy looked at him, confused, so Peter continued.

“I’d been given this really awesome suit by Mr Stark. It was so much better than my old one, but it made me a bit … overconfident. It was like I was unstoppable so I didn’t notice the knife until he was about to stab me with it.”

“Oh no!”

“It was alright though, because all of a sudden the knife was made of rubber and didn’t hurt at all. I was totally confused, but then I saw you looking down from the roof above me. You were gone before I could say anything. From then, I kept seeing you every now and again, watching me.”

“What was I doing?”

“You said you were keeping a watch list of super powered people, but I think you were curious more than anything. You see, you have people like Captain America and Thor, super powered people for sure, but all older. Then I come along. I’m younger than everyone else so I think you were curious because I was like you.”

“Like me?”

“Young.”

“Oh, what happened after?”

“I finally caught up with you.”  
“Were you mad?”

“Not really. By this point, I was pretty curious myself. We talked but then someone tried robbing a convenience store and we stopped them together. After that, we kept hanging out and became friends.”

“That doesn’t sound that weird.”

“No? I guess the weirder part came later.”

Billy raised an eyebrow.

“Do you remember how I said that I needed a push to be Spiderman because of who I was, not because of the suit?”

Billy nodded.

“You said I gave you it.”

“You did. Mr Stark took my suit away. You agreed with what he was trying to get across, but completely disagreed with how he went about doing it. So you took the suit from him” Peter chuckled, “Mr Stark was so angry that someone took the suit. He thought I did it, but he couldn’t prove anything because I didn’t have it.”

“Wait, I didn’t give it back to you?”

“Like I said, in principle you agreed with his reasons, but you didn’t trust that he would ever give it back to me, or he would set completely unreasonable terms. I was still confused, I wanted it back, but you weren’t giving it. You said that Spiderman existed before the suit, and I needed to understand that. I didn’t get it, not until the homecoming dance when I went to stop Toomes. You dealt with Shocker so I could leave.”

“So, why were you still friends with me when I stole your suit and didn’t give it back?” Billy was still confused.

Peter considered a moment.

“I guess because you made me understand. And when I did, you gave me the suit back, just like you said you would.”

Billy didn’t seem convinced.

“I did say it was weird, but it’s what happened, and frankly, I don’t regret it.”

Billy nodded, very slowly. Peter looked down and saw the boy’s eyelids drooping. He shuffled so that Billy would be more comfortable and waited as Billy’s breathing became slow and deep. Peter thought back, remembering those moments again. He loved his friendship with Billy. He could talk to him about being a hero without the judgement that might come from his other Avengers, but also with the understanding that people like May or Ned wouldn’t have. And to think, it was built on some mild stalking, petty theft and a stolen suit. Peter chuckled as he felt sleep pulling at him too. He gave in without resistance, ignoring the anticipation that the morning was bringing.

 

If an outsider, someone who had no idea who the Avengers were, walked into the compound, they would know that something was going on. The buzz was palpable. It seemed to infect everything, every word spoken, every action taken. The question everyone wanted to ask, but nobody wanted answering, was whether this was going to work. It made it that much harder for Peter to convince Billy to eat his breakfast. Billy knew what was going to happen. He was trying to be brave, but there is only so much that a five year old can be. After fifteen minutes of pushing his cereal around the bowl, Peter decided he’d had enough. Wanda looked like she wanted to say something, comfort or concern Peter didn’t know, but every time she tried the words seemed to catch in her throat.

“Despite my lack of the appropriate organ, I believe I have butterflies in my stomach” Vision said, “or is that not the correct expression?”

“No, that’s right” Peter said.

He didn’t trust himself to say anything more. They were waiting for the word to go down to the lab, the word to say that Strange was ready for them. They weren’t sure what would happen clothes-wise when he changed back. They couldn’t dress him in Billy’s big clothes, which would be completely uncomfortable. Eventually they settled on a normal set of child clothes, but added Billy’s cape. The boy ran his hands through the material, seeming to find comfort in the familiarity of it.

“I do not believe the possibility hasn’t crossed your minds” Vision said to Peter and Wanda, leaving unsaid what he was talking about.

Of course it had, many times since Strange had first talked to them about it. Peter clutched the gem that Strange had given Billy. He said that it didn’t actually give bravery to people, but Peter felt better holding it. Probably just the placebo effect, or maybe, Peter suspected, Billy believed Strange’s tale about what it did and his magic had unconsciously made it real. Maybe the teenage Billy could say either way.

“Boss says that they’re ready downstairs” FRIDAY announced.

Billy jumped at the sudden voice. Peter got him ready to go down.

“Do you remember what you need to do?” he asked the boy.

Billy nodded. Peter and Wanda had explained to Billy what Strange needed of him, and how he would do it. Billy had accepted the instructions without much hesitation, but then again, he hadn’t said much all morning. Peter followed Wanda and Vision, leading Billy down to one of the labs downstairs. All the equipment had been moved elsewhere, leaving a large empty space in the centre of the room. Dr Cho was waiting with her supplies, ready for either outcome. Tony and Steve were also there, nervously watching Strange, who stood in the centre of the room. A large circular glyph had been drawn into the floor. Drawn or burned, Peter couldn’t tell. He didn’t know what the symbols meant, but he trusted that Strange did. Billy seemed wary of the glyph, not wanting to walk on it. Peter didn’t either. He may not be magical, but even he could feel something coming from the glyph. Strange approached them, straight to business.

“You ready Billy?”

The boy nodded, uncertainly at first but confidence growing. Peter saw a look flash across Strange’s face, one he’d seen before on the doctor. Compassion, concern, it was all there, and then it was gone.

“Then it’s time.”

He left them, taking a place on a smaller circle protruding from the main one. Billy didn’t look like he was going onto that glyph at all. Peter knelt down and handed him the gem.

“To be brave, remember.”

Billy held the stone. He gave it a squeeze before almost leaping on Peter, hugging him tightly.  
“It’s ok, you’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m scared.”

Peter hugged him tighter.  
“I know. I’m scared too. I guess we both have to be brave.”

He didn’t know what else to say. The rational part of him said that Billy needed to do this, they couldn’t wait another ten years for Wiccan to be ready as a hero, and they couldn’t keep looking after him like they had done. The emotional part wanted to do nothing more than scoop him up, tell Dr Strange to get lost, if Billy didn’t want to do it then he wouldn’t. Billy broke the hug, took a deep breath and walked to the centre of the glyph.

“I’ll let you know when to start” Strange said.

He held his hands out and made a wide sweeping motion, before swiftly aiming his palms down at the circle he stood in. The glyph shone, the drawn lines coming to life with orange light. From the smaller circle, the light crept out along the lines of the larger glyph. A short while later, both glyphs were ablaze with orange energy. Strange raised his hands slightly. The outer ring of the glyph Billy stood in rose to about waist height and began spinning, around and around, faster and faster, until the symbols were little more than an orange blur.

“Whenever you’re ready Billy” Strange called.

Billy took another deep breath and started.

“ **Undo what I did. Undo what I did. Undo what I did.** ”

As he chanted, his body was enveloped in a soft blue glow, which grew brighter with each repetition. The blue became more thread-like, like a ball of string being unwound. From the forming gaps, yellow energy sprung forth, harsher than the blue, looking more like lightning. Peter recognised it as the same magic that did this to him in the first place. Billy stopped chanting and the yellow magic arced out. The boy doubled over, his face scrunched up in pain.

“I can’t do it” he cried to Peter.

“I know it hurts Billy, but you need to keep going. Dr Strange is right there to make the pain stop but you need to do your part” Peter said, hoping to reassure the boy.

Billy calmed himself slightly and resumed his chanting.

“ **Undo what I did. Undo what I did. Undo what I did.** ”

The blue of Billy’s magic and the yellow of the spell danced around one another, seeming to do battle amongst themselves. Little by little, the yellow dominated the blue. Billy doubled over again and Peter expected him to stop, unable to keep going through the pain, but he was surprised. Billy didn’t stop. He kept going, despite pain being obvious in his voice. The yellow light intensified, completely extinguishing the blue. The energy coiled around him as it had done when he was first affected and Billy cried out. Strange acted. The spinning ring of orange magic suddenly contracted. Peter felt as though there was a hurricane in the lab as the shrinking ring made contact with Billy. There was a burst of light. Peter had to look away, but still the light was blinding. Then the wind stopped. Then there were no more sounds of magic. There was nothing.

 

Peter didn’t want to look, but he made himself do it anyway. Would there be a pile of goo where his friend had once been? Was Billy going to be older but not old enough, or would he be younger than he had been? A small gasp brought his attention to where the centre of the glyph had been. On his knees, bent over with his head in his hands, was Billy. He was short, but then Billy had always been short, but he looked to be right size. Strange’s spell had worked. He couldn’t look for much longer. In the euphoria of seeing his friend back to normal, he hadn’t noticed that Billy wasn’t wearing much. The tattered remains of children’s clothes were no good on a now teenage body, but thankfully the cape covered him up somewhat so he wasn’t completely on display. Billy noticed this as well. He flicked his wrist and small glowing blue bubbles spread all over his body. Almost as quick as they appeared, they were gone, leaving behind Billy’s suit: black t-shirt with cream sides, black pants. All that was missing was the headband and gloves. None of the Avengers stepped forward. Peter didn’t know about them, but he wasn’t sure how he should be acting. Did Billy remember any of the last few days? Even if he didn’t, how was Peter supposed to act, knowing what Billy had gone through as a child? Did he say something? Maybe he should follow Billy’s lead. However he acted, Peter would follow. That seemed like a good plan. When Billy started to shakily get to his feet, Strange stepped forward, offering his hand, which Billy took.

“It’s good to have you back Billy” Strange said, helping Billy up.

“It’s good to be back” he replied, swaying a little as he stood, “what happened exactly?”

“You were hit with spell that turned you into a five year old for a few days.”

“And the ringing in my ears?”

“That’s probably a result of turning you back as quickly as we did” Strange answered him, gesturing for Helen Cho to come and examine him.

She did so. Billy didn’t resist the examination, answering any questions with only a vague tone of confusion, like he was still trying to gather his thoughts.

“You’re a lot more cooperative than you were a few days ago” Helen joked.

“Well a few days ago, you were a stranger.”

Helen paused briefly, before asking the question that Peter and, by the looks of things, everyone else was dying to know the answer to.

“So, how much do you remember of the last four days?”

Billy considered for a moment.

“All of it. But it’s weird. It’s like it didn’t happen to me. I remember all the feelings and everything, but it’s like I was watching it happen to someone else.”

He caught Peter’s eye and quickly looked away. Teenage Billy was usually quite good at hiding when he was uncomfortable, but Peter was sure he could see just the faintest blush on his cheeks.

“He seems fine, but I’d like to keep him here for at least a day so I can keep an eye on things” Helen said, to Dr Strange as much as to Billy.

Strange looked like he wanted to argue, but decided against it and held his tongue. Billy simply nodded. Tony and Steve went over to express their own happiness at Billy’s condition. Peter and Wanda approached too, though more tentatively. Both of them had been almost like surrogate parents to five year old Billy, especially Peter. How would he react to the pair of them?

“I wasn’t a problem, was I?” Billy said.

Tony must have been teasing him.

“You were a little ball of emotions, you frightened us all to an earlier grave, but other than that, you were no bother at all” Tony said.

Steve gave him a light shove. Billy caught sight of Peter and Wanda. He awkwardly looked away.

“I think I’m gonna go lie down. I didn’t sleep much last night” he said.

Helen nodded her approval.

“That sounds like a good idea” she said.

Billy excused himself and left the room, resolutely refusing to meet Peter and Wanda’s gazes. Part of Peter was glad that he didn’t have to speak to Billy, at least not yet, because he didn’t know what on earth he would say. But he was also sad. He didn’t want to let something as small as a de-aging come between them, even if he had ended up finding out more than he’d expected to. Wanda looked like she felt the same as him. Still, Peter thought, Billy would be around for at least one more day, so there would be plenty of time for them to talk.

 

“I think it’s official. He’s avoiding us.”

Peter and Wanda were alone in the kitchen. Tony had been called away to deal with company business and Steve had to meet with T’Challa about something. They hadn’t seen much more of Billy. Peter had seen him going into the medical bay and Wanda had caught a glimpse as he was going back into his room. Both times, Billy had quickly ducked away to avoid speaking to them. Wanda had hoped they’d see him when he got some lunch, hence why they were camped in the kitchen, but Peter hadn’t been certain. He knew Strange had reprimanded Billy for his bad habit of conjuring food, money, anything he needed, out of nothing. It completely devalues the currency, Strange had said. Billy had mostly learned to not do that, but Peter had a feeling that he would gladly do so if it meant he didn’t have to interact with anyone, especially Peter and Wanda.

“I don’t think he’s angry or anything” Peter said.

Wanda nodded. They’d both agreed that Billy had seemed embarrassed. Initially, they thought it was just about being in a room full of people with practically no clothes on, and while that was certainly the case, it couldn’t explain everything, especially not his continued behaviour.

“We’ve both seen him in a position that few people have. I guess he just doesn’t know how to deal with it” Wanda said.

“What do we do then?” Peter asked.

Wanda shrugged.

“I’m not sure, wait for him to come to us?” she suggested.

Peter nodded, uncertainly. So they waited. Lunch had been and gone and still no Billy. The afternoon wore on and still no Billy. Peter couldn’t take it anymore. He needed to talk to his friend. Wanda grabbed his arm as he stood up.

“I’m going to go and talk to him, even if I have to break his door down” he walked away from Wanda, who hurried to follow him.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

She didn’t stop him though. He knocked on Billy’s door, not expecting an answer so he wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get one. Slowly, he opened the door. The room was empty. The bed did look slept in, so he hadn’t been lying to get away from them, but besides that, the room looked untouched from the previous day. But if Billy wasn’t here, then where was he? He wouldn’t run away, surely not.

“FRIDAY, is Billy still in the compound?” he asked the AI.

“Yes he is” was the short reply.

“Then where is he?” Wanda asked.

Peter tried not to worry, but he was still running on pseudo-parental instinct.

“He is in the lounge.”

Peter and Wanda exchanged confused looks. You needed to go through the kitchen to get to the lounge, and they hadn’t seen Billy at all. They hurried back and sure enough, Billy was there. He looked up anxiously as they entered the room, fiddling with his hands. On the low table were several pizza boxes.

“What’s all this?” Peter asked, indicating the food.

Hopefully a less personal question would help ease the mood.

“I wanted to … to say … thank you … for … for looking … after me” he stammered.

“By getting us pizza?” Wanda asked.

She was smiling warmly, reassuring Billy.

“Well, I wanted to cook, but then remembered that I’m terrible at it. I’m told that conjured food doesn’t taste right. But take-out is a thing, so I thought why not.”

Peter chuckled. There must have been half a dozen boxes at least.

“You certainly went all out” he commented.

“I didn’t know who would be here, and I know some of us eat loads” he said, not so subtly directing that comment at Peter.

He still looked uncomfortable, but he was spared having to say anything further about pizza by Wanda, who pulled him into a hug.

“Thank you Billy. You really didn’t have to.”

“I did though” he said, relaxing into the hug, “you had to put up with me, and I know I wasn’t easy to handle.”

“You weren’t that bad” Peter said.

“I was” Billy countered, “I remember it. I was clingy, I was difficult, I couldn’t just say what was bothering me or what I needed, and I…”

He hesitated.

“And I put you all in danger.”

Peter pulled him into a hug of his own.

“If you still believe that woman, then…”

“It’s nothing to do with her” Billy said, returning Peter’s hug, “even if you never met her, I still made monsters that could have killed you. I still knocked you all out, which could have easily went further and been a whole lot worse.”

“You were a kid Billy” Peter said, “admittedly one with magic powers, but still a kid.”

“I know, but that’s no excuse.”

“Don’t think of it as an excuse. Think of it more as an IOU when something weird happens to us.”

Wanda gave Peter a gentle shove. Billy smiled.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, and I expect the same patient attention as I gave you” Peter joked.

Billy smiled again.  
“No guarantees” he shot back.

Peter sat on the couch and pulled over a pizza box. Billy sat next to him and Wanda next to him. They each busied themselves with eating. Peter purposefully ate his slowly. He would not give Billy the satisfaction of being right about him and food. Somehow he still finished before Billy and Wanda were halfway through theirs, which only made Billy laugh.

“Told you.”

“Shut up.”

“Here” Billy said, handing him another box.

“I can’t.”

“It’s why I got so many. Now eat.”

Peter did as he was told.

“Oh how the tables have turned” Wanda joked.

“Hey, I did as I was told.”

“True” Wanda mused, “when Peter told you to do it. Not so much when anyone else did.”

“Took us a while to figure out why” Peter said.

Billy had been about to take another bite of pizza, but set it down. Peter immediately regretted his comment.

“I’m sorry Billy. I shouldn’t have…”

“No, it’s ok. I’m the one who should be apologising. I never really thought about it before, but I guess you really do look a lot like him.”

“Like who?”

“Jamie.”

Peter and Wanda exchanged a look. This conversation could go badly very quickly.

“Who was he?” Wanda asked tentatively.

There was a pause before Billy spoke.

“James Chapman, but he was only ever Jamie to me. We lived at the same house when I was growing up.”

He sighed.

“You’ve guessed that my childhood wasn’t exactly friendly,” Peter and Wanda nodded, “the care workers didn’t care, or at least one of them didn’t and everyone did as she did because she was in charge.”

Billy tensed slightly.

“Jamie was the only one who cared.”

He held out his hand. From thin air, he produced a photo. It was old but still clear to see what was in it. It was Billy and Jamie, sat on a couch smiling at the camera. Billy was younger than they’d seen him, maybe three or four, and Jamie did look a lot like Peter.

“When Mrs Monty would yell, or send to me to my room for no reason, Jamie would come and calm me down. He’d make me laugh, we’d have fun.”

He looked at the picture fondly.

“What happened?” Peter asked.

“You read my file?”

The pair nodded.

“Mrs Monty wanted me as lonely and as miserable as possible. I guess she thought if no-one was around I wouldn’t use my powers and no-one would get hurt, I don’t know. So of course, she couldn’t have me getting close to Jamie. Not that Jamie stopped. He knew what she was doing. Even when she all but said that he was abusing me, he didn’t stop.”

Billy took a deep breath.

“But then the home closed down. We were all moved and Mrs Monty made sure that Jamie was sent to a different home, away from me.”

Peter saw tears forming in Billy’s eyes. Wanda wrapped an arm around his waist, and Peter his shoulders. Billy took a deep breath and kept going.

“I was never told where he went. I was all alone.”

“What happened to Jamie? We could try and find him” Peter suggested.

Billy shook his head.

“He was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour about a year after we were moved. Died not long after.”

He almost let out a sob.

“Not that I was told. I only found out after Mrs Monty retired, and that’s when I knew I had to get out of there. It didn’t matter that I was barely even eleven years old, I needed to leave and go, well, anywhere.”

“I’m sorry Billy.”

Billy wiped his eyes.

“It’s alright. I’m better now. I found Dr Strange. I found you guys. I found a f… new friends.”

Peter could guess what he meant to say, but let it go. He picked up Billy’s abandoned slice and held it in front of his mouth.

“Come on, eat up.”

“What are you doing?”

“Would you prefer if it was an aeroplane? I can do that.”

He started making plane noises. Wanda laughed and Billy snatched the slice from him.

“No” he said, but he was laughing as well.

“At least you’re eating without me going first” Peter said.

Billy’s eyes widened a little.

“Oh god, I did do that, didn’t I” he said, swallowing his mouthful, which was probably far too big.

“Yes you did.”

“Why did you do that?” Wanda asked.

“Honestly, you could spend hours psychoanalysing why I did anything when I was five years old” Billy said, shrugging.

They continued laughing when they heard a soft click. Vision was stood in the doorway in front of them with a camera.

“What’s that for?” Wanda asked.

“I believe it is customary for happy families to have pictures taken of them. Is this not right?” Vision said.

“No you’re right, but we’re…” Billy said, trailing off.

Peter seized his moment. He pulled out his own phone and held it out in front of himself and Billy.

“Say cheese!”

Billy took one look at himself in the camera and ducked behind his hands.

“No!” he said playfully.

Wanda jumped into the photo. It wasn’t Peter’s best, but he liked it all the same. They continued with their feast of pizza, somehow managing to get through all the boxes between the three of them. When Peter went to bed that night, full to bursting, he was happy that things were back to normal.

 

There had been many pictures taken that evening, and Billy looked over all of them fondly. There were hardly any pictures of him as a child, only the one with him and Jamie. He hadn’t been given many toys either. Looking at his room, full as it was with children’s stuff, it was comforting to know that he’d had a small taste of what a ‘normal’ childhood was like. A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. And that was what it was, it was like he had a chance to relive his childhood years for a few days, with a family that actually gave a damn about him. Not that he was able to say it to Peter and Wanda, not yet anyway, but they were his family. Peter, Wanda, Dr Strange, Vision, the rest of the Avengers, all of them. They were dysfunctional. They argued more often than not. They zipped around the world and beyond fighting bad guys. But despite all of that, they always came back together, even if that involved locking them in a room until they sorted out their differences. They were one big, loving, insanity driving, world saving family based on friendship instead of blood, and Billy felt honoured to be a part of it. It was something he never thought he would ever have. As he got himself ready to sleep, he propped up two photos against his bedside lamp, along with his gem. The gem didn’t actually do anything besides glow, but Billy didn’t care. Child or teenager, it didn’t matter, wishful thinking wasn’t really a bad thing. He lay down, looking at the photos. The first was of him and Jamie, the only ray of happiness in a very bad time. The other was the first that Vision took: him, Peter and Wanda, eating pizza and laughing together. It was like a promise for the times to come. Billy would never say that he treasured many things, but he would say this. When he was an old man, possibly bald, most definitely going senile, absolutely a pain in the ass to whoever he was with, he would look at these pictures and be nothing but happy, and it was with this happiness that Billy slept at the days end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
> 
> It feels weird to be at the end of a work, but it's also a good feeling to know that I can actually set out to write a story, and get it done from start to finish. Thank you to everyone who has read to the end. I hope you've enjoyed it, this weird little bit of mini-canon of mine. If you have any questions about anything to do with this work, or this version of the MCU canon, please feel free to ask. Also, if anyone would like to see other works in this version of the canon, please let me know.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted Wiccan to be in the MCU, so I have my own little canon where he is in it. I hope to expand on where exactly this version of the character fits into the MCU that we've seen thus far. It is set post infinity war. Since I don't know how that particular story ends, I went with the 'everything was alright in the end, sunshine and rainbows' type conclusion rather than wade into the myriad of more exciting possibilities. It also means I can use the characters as we've seen them up to and including Infinity War, without having to worry about any deaths (whether permanent or not).
> 
> The character may be called Wiccan, though he's practically an original character. But hey, the MCU has already taken so many liberties with other characters, why not this one as well.
> 
> I would love to hear any feedback people have on this. Is it good? Does it suck? Did you click away in disgust because I've completely butchered the characters? Please let me know.


End file.
